Distribution of 15 autosomal STRs in the region of Sarrabus, Sardinia (Italy)

In this paper we report, for the first time, on the distribution of 15 autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) in Sarrabus, a region in south east Sardinia (Italy), for which there are no data in the literature. Samples were obtained from 77 unrelated normal subjects born and living in the three main villages of Sarrabus. In spite of being a homogeneous population, a high degree of polymorphism was observed: heterozygosity values range from 0.618 to 0.848 and Polymophism Information Content (PIC) values range from 0.579 to 0.853. When compared to other Sardinian populations, our data showed that Sarrabus is genetically well differentiated. This finding is consistent with the notion that Sardinia, although regarded as a homogeneous population, shows genetic heterogeneity when different microareas are analyzed. The implication in forensic medicine of our results, which describe a missing population, are discussed.