Allele frequencies of nine STR loci of Jewish and Arab populations in Israel.

DNA typing of nine short tandem repeat (STR) loci was carried out on unrelated Israeli Jewish and Arab individuals. All loci were highly polymorphic and the distribution of the obtained genotypes did not deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. A comparison between Jewish and Arab population data revealed statistically significant differences in allele frequency distributions for some of the loci. The results presented in this study enable the use of these nine STR loci for forensic, identification and paternity cases in the Jewish and the Arab populations of Israel.