Date of Award

2-2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Science

First Advisor

Dr. Amr Amin

Second Advisor

Dr. Salih Abdu Ahmed AI-Shorepy

Third Advisor

Dr. Michael Buratovich

Abstract

The analysis of DNA polymorphism has become an indispensable tool in forensic science and criminal cases. Today, the amplification of Short Tandem Repeat (STR) loci using PCR is the perfect method for typing biological evidence found at crime scenes. Forensic laboratories all over the world have been progressively expanding their databases for better discrimination among individuals and suspects of crimes.

The objective of this thesis was to analyze the DNA profile of native and non-native populations, and to study the similarities and dissimilarities among them. Blood samples were collected from three non-natives (Egyptian, Indian and Pakistani) and native populations from two Emirates (Sharjah and Abu-Dhabi). Eight STR loci were used as genetic markers. These loci were amplified and typed for further analysis. Genotype and allelic frequencies of the eight loci were calculated from the observed genotypic frequencies using the gene count method for all studied population groups. Comparison of the two UAE native populations (Abu-Dhabi and Sharjah) gave no evidence of substructure among them. On the other hand, there was clear evidence of substructure when the Indian population was compared to the Egyptian population, based on both chi-square tests and allelic frequency. The results of the eight STR loci indicated that there were greater similarities between the three Arab groups studied in comparison to the Indian and Pakistani groups.

This work demonstrated that the eight STR loci, that were analyzed with an ABI Prism 310 Genetic Analyzer, can be used for obtaining reliable STR typing results in forensic analysis and other human identification applications.

Download
COinS