Gérard Garcin, Marie Claude Bonino, Aimée Mondan, Annick Taille and Sylvie Frackowiak
Laboratoire de Police Scientifique 2, rue A. Becker 13224 Marseille Cedex 2 France
HLA-DQ alpha locus typing, routinely used for three years in our laboratory, is a powerful tool in comparative analysis of biological samples and individuals in forensic cases, with a suitable discrimination power, particularly when associated with other loci.
The use of this system combines advantages of Polymerase Chain Reaction (speed, limited requirements concerning DNA amounts and quality) with the polymorphism of this locus, but needs a good validation study. In order to validate this data, population studies are a necessary prerequisite. So, we have collected HLA-DQ alpha typing results from a sample of 202 unrelated individuals involved in local inquiries (suspects or victims) to determine allelic and genotypic frequencies of the HLA-DQ alpha locus in Marseilles population and surroundings.
Our results show that the allelic frequencies are in the range of 7.2-26.7%, corresponding respectively to DQ alpha 1.3 and 4 alleles. They are consistent with other results obtained from different population studies already published: Dutch (1), Swiss (3), North American Caucasians (2), Kuwaiti (4) populations and French population from Strasbourg (5). Furthermore, preliminary calculations seem to agree with no significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
Nevertheless, the data presented here are only gross values: we are currently working on further statistical investigations. A similar study is presently initiated on the LDLR, GYPA, HBGG, D7S8 and Gc loci. Preliminary results are now available from 106 individuals.
Go to proceedings home page