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A set of seven common Y-chromosome specific microsatellites has been used in the present report to type 308 individuals of 16 African population groups from Mozambique. These microsatellites include the DYS19, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS389I and DYS389II systems. The population structure was analysed and therefore genetic distances and several diversity indices were computed and compared with other populations around the world. The results obtained in the present study show that these populations share common characteristics with other available Bantu-speaking African population groups and clear differences with non-African ones. The combination of the analysis of Y-chromosome STRs with other more slowly mutating Y-chromosome polymorphisms (biallelic markers), mtDNA sequences and autosomal data for the same populations, will allow the analysis of human evolution in paternal lineages in different time scales. The forensic implications of these results are discussed. D 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

In last years, interest in Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) has increased due to their numerous applications: in medical genetics, in human and evolutionary genetics but also in forensic field. Polymorphisms placed in the mitochondrial genome are particularly important in a forensic context in part due to the fact that it is in high copy number per cell. Consequently, mtDNA is especially useful to the study of degraded samples with little or no nuclear DNA as being old skeletal remains and hair shafts. On the other hand, mtDNA SNPs have demonstrate its usefulness for human population studies. The development of new methodologies for high-throughput SNPs analysis is one of the most promising areas in genetics. Here, we describe a rapid and robust assay to simultaneously genotype 17 SNPs of mitochondrial DNA by minisequencing reaction using SNaPshot (Applied Biosystems). The methodology here described shows high accuracy and sensitivity, and avoid the use of alternative time-consuming classical strategies (i.e. RFLP typing) and the requirement of high quantities of DNA template. D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In order to assess the microgeographic heterogeneity of Y chromosome lineage's distribution in the north-western part of Iberian Peninsula, 409 male samples from the five districts of Northern Portugal and two districts of Southern Galicia were typed for 15 Y chromosome microsatellite markers. The results suggest that, in NW Iberia, barriers other than political were more important in shaping present Y chromosome lineage substructuring.