Allele frequency of VNTR locus D1S80 observed in Denizli Province of Turkey.

The variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) locus D1S80, located on chromosome 1 (1p35-36), has a repeat unit 16 bp in length, and different numbers of these repeat units have been observed for populations of different origins and ethnicity. We used a molecular identification method based on capillary electrophoresis separation to analyze D1S80 locus polymorphism among 74 subjects from Denizli province, Turkey, finding an amplified fragment length size of 379-635 bp. Allele repeat numbers were deduced from these sizes and sequence comparison. The most common alleles were repeat units 24 (34.3%) and 18 (22.4%), with frequencies of 0.414 and 0.207, respectively. Other alleles were 25 (7.86%), 28 (5.71%), 22 (4.25%), and 29 (2.86%). The allele with 23 repeat units was not observed. Results were in Hardy-Weinberg linkage disequilibrium. Observed heterozygosity was 0.614, and expected heterozygosity was 0.787. Theta(k) value was 4.86 (95% confidence interval limits). Capillary electrophoresis is a powerful approach for accurate identification of VNTR loci, especially for low base pair units like D1S80, for prenatal diagnosis, linkage analysis, forensic identification, paternity testing, anthropological research, and phylogenetic studies.