Genome Biology 2005, 6:P9 Deposited research article Migration events play significant role in genetic differentiation: A microsatellite-based study on Sikkim settlers Saurav Guha a , R.Trivedi a and V.K.Kashyap a, b* Addresses: a Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata, India. b National Institute of Biologicals, Noida, India. Correspondence: V.K. Kashyap. E-mail: vkk2k@hotmail.com and sauravguhain@yahoo.com comment reviews reports deposited research interactions information refereed research .deposited research AS A SERVICE TO THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY, GENOME BIOLOGY PROVIDES A 'PREPRINT' DEPOSITORY TO WHICH ANY ORIGINAL RESEARCH CAN BE SUBMITTED AND WHICH ALL INDIVIDUALS CAN ACCESS FREE OF CHARGE. ANY ARTICLE CAN BE SUBMITTED BY AUTHORS, WHO HAVE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ARTICLE'S CONTENT. THE ONLY SCREENING IS TO ENSURE RELEVANCE OF THE PREPRINT TO GENOME BIOLOGY'S SCOPE AND TO AVOID ABUSIVE, LIBELLOUS OR INDECENT ARTICLES. ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION OF THE JOURNAL HAVE NOT BEEN PEER-REVIEWED. EACH PREPRINT HAS A PERMANENT URL, BY WHICH IT CAN BE CITED. RESEARCH SUBMITTED TO THE PREPRINT DEPOSITORY MAY BE SIMULTANEOUSLY OR SUBSEQUENTLY SUBMITTED TO GENOME BIOLOGY OR ANY OTHER PUBLICATION FOR PEER REVIEW; THE ONLY REQUIREMENT IS AN EXPLICIT CITATION OF, AND LINK TO, THE PREPRINT IN ANY VERSION OF THE ARTICLE THAT IS EVENTUALLY PUBLISHED. IF POSSIBLE, GENOME BIOLOGY WILL PROVIDE A RECIPROCAL LINK FROM THE PREPRINT TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE. Posted: 3 June 2005 Genome Biology 2005, 6:P9 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http://genomebiology.com/2005/6/7/P9 © 2005 BioMed Central Ltd Received: 31 May 2005 This is the first version of this article to be made available publicly and no other version is available at present. This information has not been peer-reviewed. Responsibility for the findings rests solely with the author(s). Migration events play significant role in genetic differentiation: A microsatellite-basedstudyonSikkimsettlers. SauravGuha a ,R.Trivedi a andV.K.Kashyap a,b * a CentralForensicScienceLaboratory,Kolkata b NationalInstituteofBiologicals,Noida Key Words : Microsatellite, Migration, Sikkim, Mongoloids, Genetic Diversity, Genetic Distance. Runningtitle:MicrosatellitePolymorphismofSikkimSettelers. *Correspondingauthor:- National InstituteofBiologicals, A32,Sector62(InstitutionalArea) Noida-201307,India TEL:-+91-120-2400027,FAX:-+91-120-2400027, E-MAIL:vkk2k@hotmail.com andsauravguhain@yahoo.com Abstract Background: AwidespectrumofgeneticdiversityinmongoloidsofIndiaiswelldocumented.Thoughall mongoloidsofIndiaareknowntohaveoriginatedfromtheMongolregionofChinabutthe periodandrouteofmigrationfromtheirnativelandtodifferentHimalayanregionsislittle known.ThusthestudiesongenomicdiversityofpeopleofSikkim,acentralHimalayanstate ofIndiawithdifferentmigrantmongoloidgroups,assumegreatsignificanceinunderstanding theimpactofmigratoryeventsinthegeneticdifferentiationofpopulations.Wetherefore studiedthegeneticdiversityonthebasisof13-tetranucleotideand2pentanucleotide microsatellitelociforatotalof208allelefrequenciesinthreemajorpopulationsofSikkim, withdifferentethnohistoryandtimeofsettlement. Result: Thestudyonmicrosatelliteallelefrequencydatasuggeststhatallthethreepopulationsof SikkimaregeneticallymoreakintothemongoloidsofChinaanddistinctlyapartfromthe mongoloidsofNortheastIndia.HoweverSikkimpopulationsarealsogeneticallycloseto non-mongoloidsofsurroundingareas.Theaverageheterozygosityandcoefficientofgene differentiationamongSikkimpopulationsaremoderate.Numberofsharedallelesandtheir frequencies,timeofdivergenceandbottleneckeffectrevealadistinctivenessofthe mongoloidssettledinSikkimfromthemainIndianmongoloidstockasalsodifferentrouteof migrationthanthemongoloidpopulationofNortheastIndia . Conclusion: OurstudyclearlydemonstratesthatthepresentdaymongoloidsofSikkimaregenetically distinctfrommongoloidsofNortheastIndiaduetotheirdifferentrouteofmigration,timeof settlement,andadmixturewithothernon-mongoloidpopulationsofadjoiningareas.This substantiatesthatmigratoryeventshaveplayedasignificantroleinthedifferentiationof mongoloidsofIndia. Background Theorigin,dispersalandantiquityofHomosapiensintheAsianpeninsulahave attainedhighsignificanceafterthediscoveryofnewarchaeologicalandanthropological evidencesfromEastAsia.Theextensivegeneticinformationpresentonmongoloids,amajor humanethnicgroupofeasternandsoutheasternAsia,alsoprovidesadeepinsightintothe originofmodernhumanandthetimeoftheirdispersalindifferentcontinents. Mongoloidsconstituteaboutone-fourthoftheworldpopulationandexhibitahigh levelofdiversity.InIndia,mongoloidscontributeapproximately3%ofthetotalpopulation, mainlyinhabitingthehillsandadjoiningplainsofNortheastandCentralHimalayas. MongoloidsinIndiaareoriginallythemigrantgroupsandtheirsettlementsindifferent regionsofthecountrywerenotasasingleinflux;rather,aprocessoflargerorsmallerwaves ofmigration.Thesemigrantpopulationsinteractedwiththenon-mongoloidpopulationsdue togeographicalproximity.Becauseofdifferentperiodsoforiginfromvariousregions, migrationandsettlement,mongoloidsofIndiadifferentiatedindifferentsocio-linguistic culturalgroupswhichhaveimpactedtheirgeneticstructure. AmongthedifferentareasofmongoloidethnicityinIndia,Sikkim–anIndianstate whichisgeographicallyabufferzonebetweenmongoloidandnon-mongoloidpopulationsof SouthAsia isuniqueinitspopulationstructure.GeographicallySikkimissurroundedby theRoyalKingdomofNepalinthewest,theRoyalKingdomofBhutanintheeast,Chinain thenorthwithmongoloidpopulationsandtheIndianstateofWestBengalinthesouthwith bothmongoloidnon-mongoloidpopulations.Moreover,thegeneticstructureofSikkim populationwiththeirbiologicalaffinities,originsanddispersalisimportantinunderstanding theimpactofmigrationonthegeneticstructureofMongoloidsinIndia.TheNepali,Bhutia andLepcha thethreemajorpopulationsinthisHimalayanland representtheIndo- mongoloidethnicgroup,albeittheLepchaaresaidtobetheforerunneramongthesettlersin thestate,followedbyBhutiaandNepalimigrationinthestate[1].TheBhutiacommunityis basicallythepeopleofTibetan(Chinese)origin,andtheirmigrationtoSikkimhadoccurred atleast800yearsago.TheNepalesearrivedinSikkimabout200yearsago[1].Thoughthe migrationofLepchatoSikkimisacontentiousissue,therearetwomajortheoriesaboutthe LepchaoriginandperiodofmigrationtoSikkim:(i)AsmallpopulationofNagastockfrom theGarohillsofAssammigratedtoSikkimabout2000yearsago,and(ii)agroupfromeast AsiamainlandmigratedthroughTibet(China)duringanearlierphaseofhumanmigrationto theHimalayasatleast3000yearsago[1]. ThecomplexmigrationandsettlementhistoryofdifferentgroupsinSikkimwith respecttotheirgenetichistoryisstilllittleknown .AutosomalandYchromosomeSTR markers[2-4],aswellasMitochondrialDNA[5]studiesillustratemigrationandgenetic diversityofmongoloidsinEastandSouth-EastAsia.Thesestudies,however,donotprovide anyinformationaboutmongoloidmigrationandsettlementindifferentregionsofIndia. Although,severalstudieshavebeencarriedoutongeneticdiversity,phylogenetic relationship,andthepatternofgeneflowamongIndianmongoloidpopulationsbasedon classicalgeneticmarkers,e.g.Tf,Ge,PGM1loci[6,7],serumproteinsandredcellenzymes [8],andacombinedstudybyRoychoudhuryandNei.[9],theyfailtoprovideanyinsightinto thehistoryofmigrationandsettlementofMongoloidsinIndia.Similarlythestudywith17 polymorphicsystemofthebloodbyBhasinetal.1986providesinformationaboutthegenetic structureofpeopleofSikkimtosomeextent. InthisstudyweusedmicrosatelliteDNAmarkerstoaddresstheconsequenceof migratoryeventsongeneticstructureofSikkimpopulationsas,theyaremoreabundantinthe genomevis-à-visclassicalgeneticmarkers[10],havehighheterozygosity[11]and polymorphismisubiquitousevenininbredpopulatiosnorspecies[12].Microsatellitesare easilyamenabletoautomatedprocedureoftyping[13]andtostatisticaltoolsusedforother markers[14,15].Theanalyticaltechniquesofquantitativegeneticsarebeingappliedto microsatellitealleles,astheyarecharacterizedquantitativelybytheirsize,i.e.numberof repeatofDNAmotif.Measuresofpopulationsubdivision[16]anddistancebetweenthe populations[17,18]aswellashigherstatistics[19,20]havebeenextensivelyemployedfor thestudyofmicrosatellitepolymorphisms. Theaboveadvantageshavemademicrosatellitemarkersextremelyinformativein understandingthegeneticstructure,migratoryhistoryandevolutionofhumanpopulations[21 -23]andourmarkerofchoicetoexaminetheimpactofmigratoryeventsonthegenetic differentiationofSikkimsettlersandtheirgeneticrelationshipwithothermongoloidsof NortheastIndia,andCaucasoid-affiliatedpopulationsofadjoiningarea. Results Geneticdifferentiation&heterozygosity:- LocusandpopulationwiseheterozygosityandGst(coefficientofgenedifferentiation) valuesreflectingtheextentofdifferentiationamongthepopulationsofSikkimareshownin Table1.TheaverageGstvalue(0.0237)suggestsmoderatedegreeofgenedifferentiation amongthestudiedpopulations.Thevalueshowevervastlydifferfromlocitoloci;itisonly 0.004atlociD3S1358,andD16S539,while0.088atlociFGA.Similarlymoderate differentiation(0.0206to0.0365)wasobservedatlociPentaD,CSF1PO,TPOX,D8S1179, VWA,D5S818andD7S820.Averageheterozygosityobservedatdifferentlocidepictsthe extentofvariationamongtheSikkimpopulations(Table1).Theaverageheterozygositiesof threepopulationswere0.786(Nepali),0.747(Bhutia)and0.684(Lepcha).Amongthe15loci, highestheterozygositywasobservedatlocusPentaE(0.841-0.902)andlowestatlocus TPOX(0.546-0.634). Alleledistribution&Variance:- Ingeneral,thenumberofsharedallelesandtheirfrequenciesamong12populations vastlydifferfromlocitoloci,(Table2)(noallelefrequenciesaregiven).Ofthetwelve microsatelliteloci(excludedPentaD,PentaEandD16S539),thenumberofallelespresentat lociD21S11(V=2.239),vWA(V=2.78),D8S1179(V=3.77)D18S51(V=6.38)andFGA (V=3.98)arequitevariedamongthepopulationswhereasotherlocidemonstrateanarrow rangeofvariation(V<2.000).InD21S11andFGAthenumberofsharedallelesrangesfrom (6-16)to(7-18)respectivelyindifferentpopulations.TheGaroexhibitonly6alleles(V= 0.892)whiletheLepchahave16alleles(V=2.93)atD21S11.TheLepchasshowonly7 alleles(V=1.123)atFGAlocusatwhichtheNepaliexhibit18alleles(V=5.096).AtD18S51 theNagaexhibit10alleles(V=5.892)whereasNepaleseexhibitamaximumof15 alleles,(V=8.736).Thevariationsofnumbersofsharedallelesarerelativelystablefor differentlociinnon-mongoloidsandChinesecomparedtoIndo-mongoloids.Thefrequencies ofsharedallelesfluctuatefrompopulationtopopulation.Atthetetranucleotiderepeatlocus THO1,theallelefrequencydistributionisquitevariedamongpopulations.Repeat9isthe predominantalleleineveryAsianmongoloidpopulationwithfrequencyof0.40to0.52[24], whichisalsoobservedinallthethreepopulationsofSikkimviz.theNepali(0.492),Bhutia (0.343)andLepcha(0.500).Butrepeat9.3not9showsanoticeablefrequency(≥0.300) amongthemongoloidpopulationofNortheastIndia,whichisobservedinmuchlower frequency(<0.15)inSikkimpopulationslikeotherAsianmongoloidpopulations[24].At locusD13S317theallele18isalsopresentwithmoderatefrequency(>0.200)inmongoloid populationsofNortheastIndiacomparedtootherpopulations. Bottlenecktest:- WeperformedSIGNtestforthreeSikkimpopulationstofindouttheextentof bottleneckeffectthatthesepopulationsmighthaveexperienced.Inarecentlybottlenecked populationtheobservedgenediversity(He)ishigherthanexpectedequilibriumgene diversity(Heq)ifthelociareevolvingundertheIAM[25].IfthelocievolveundertheSMM, thentherecanbeasituationwhenheterozygosityexcess(He>Heq)isnotbeingobserved [26].TheSIGNtestresultsunderIAMandSMMassumptionsarepresentedinTable3.In NepalipopulationunderIAM14locishowedheterozygosityexcess(He>Heq)with(P= 0.00484)andunderSMM,8locishowed(He>Heq)with(P=0.41469).Bhutiapopulation exhibited13lociwith(He>Heq)(P=0.02380)underIAMandinSMM5lociwith(He>Heq), (P=0.04238).UnderIAMLepchashowed9lociwith(He>Heq)(P=0.57428)andinSMM2 lociwith(He>Heq)(P=0.00037).Thesevaluesindicateasignificantlevelofbottleneck withinthesepopulationsduringtheirperiodofmigrationtodifferentregions. GeneticDistance&Phylogeny:- Thegeneticdistancesamongthepopulationswerecomputedbyemployingdifferent geneticdistancemeasuresviz.D A, Ds , Dc,Dsw,Fstand(δµ) 2 forallelefrequenciesof12STR loci.TheNJ,(Figure1)andUPGMA(notshown)phylogeneticconstructionwiththese distanceswerequitesimilarinwhichNaga,Kuki,GaroandHmarformadifferentcluster with96-97%bootstrapvalueseparatedfromthemaincluster.InNJtreewithdistancesD A, Ds , Dc,Dsw,andFst,theNepali,BhutiaandLepchaformaclusterwithChineseand Caucasoid affiliatedBrahminsofIndia,whereaswith(δµ) 2 Garopopulationformacluster withCaucasoid.InthisstudywepresentNJtreeforDcandDasincetheyaremoreprecisefor obtainingthecorrecttreetopology[27]. TimeofDivergence:- ThetimeofdivergenceofLepchafromNagawascalculatedbyusingDs , Dswand (δµ) 2 distancesasthesedistancesarelineartoevolutionarytime[27]andaverage microsatellitemutationratei.e.5.6x10 -4 pergeneration[28].Theseparationtimeforthese populationsisvariedfordifferentdistancecalculations,itis1718yearsforDsw,3730years forDsand8303yearsfor(δµ) 2 .ForourstudywefindDstobemoresuitablefordivergence timecalculationsince(δµ) 2 andDswarenotpreciseifthepopulationsizeisnotconstant throughoutevolutionandhasexperiencedbottleneck.Italsoexhibitshighheterozygosity level(nearly0.800)withsmalldivergencelevelamongthepopulationsthatareconnectedby weakgeneflow[27,29]. Discussion Themigrationofmongoloidsfromtheirnativelandisknowntooccurindifferent phases,periodsanddirections.Reportedly,atleast6.5Kybpyearsagoasmallgroupof populationfromtheSino-TibetanlinguisticfamilymovedfromthevalleyofYellowriver towardswest,andthenturnedtosouthtosouthwesterndirection[30].Tibeto-Burman speakers,asub-familyofSino-Tibetanlinguisticfamily,followedtwomainroutesof dispersal:(i)towardswestinTibet(China)andthendowntoNepal,Sikkim,Bhutanand NorthernIndia,and(ii)towardssouthwestdowntherivervalleysalongtheeasternedgeof theTibetanplateauthroughthe'EthnicCorridor'.Duringmigrationtherehavebeenseveral contactsbetweennorthernandcentralAsianlanguageswithTibeto-Burmanlanguages[31]. TheselanguagecontactswereresponsibleforgeneticaffinityofTibeto-Burmanlinguistic familieswithnonTibeto-Burmanlinguisticfamiliesofadjoiningareas. MongoloidsofCentralHimalayasandNortheastIndiabelongtotwodifferent linguisticsubfamiliesunderTibeto-Burmansublinguisticfamily.Sikkimpopulationsbelong toHimalayishlinguisticgroup(Indo-sphere)whilethenortheasternIndianMongoloid populationsbelongtoJingpho-konyak-bodoandkuku-chin-nagagroup(Sino-sphere)under Tibeto-Burmanlinguisticsubfamily[32].Thesesub-languagegroupshavebeendevelopedas theresultofaclosecontactofmongoloidswithsurroundingnon-mongoloids.TheIndo- spheregrouphasastronginfluencefromIndicandDravidianlanguagesofIndia[32]. Phylogenetictreesbasedupon12microsatellitemarkersclearlydepictapatternofco- evolutionofgenesandlanguagesinthestudiedpopulation.TheclusteringpatternofNJtree withDa,Ds,Dc,DswandFstdistancesexplicitlydemonstrated,Sikkimpopulations’genetic affinitytoCaucasoid affiliatedBrahminsofIndiaratherthanmongoloidsofNortheastIndia TheSikkimpopulationsexhibitaclearclusteringpatternwithChinesepopulationasboth SikkimandChinesepopulationshaveexperiencedgeneflowfromCaucasianpopulation duringtheirmigrationfromthemainlandofeastAsiathroughdifferentroutes.Mongoloidsof NortheastIndia(Naga,Kuki,HmarandGaro)constituteaseparateclusterwith96-97% bootstrapvalueandarephylogeneticallydistantfromMongoloidsofSikkim,andChinaas wellasfromCaucasoidaffiliatedBrahminpopulationofIndia. Thenumbersofsharedallelesdistributionandtheirvariancewithinlocifluctuate frompopulationtopopulation,whichishighlynoticeableatlociD21S11,D18S51,D8S1179, VWAandFGA.Thisdistributionpatternclearlydepictsalargenumberofvariationspresent [...]... Southeast Asia mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals genetic continuity of ancient mongoloid migrations Genetics 1992, 130: 139-152 6 Saha N, Bhattacaryya SP, Mukhopadhyay B, Bhattacharyya SK, Gupta R, Basu A: A genetic study among the Lepchas of the Darjeeling area of eastern India, Human Heredity 198 7a, 37: 113-121 7 Saha N, Mukhopadhyay B, Bhattacharyya SK, Gupta R, Basu A: The distribution of transferring,... (~3730 years) of Lepcha from Naga clan suggests that the Lepcha population was separated from Naga populations in early phase of migration of humans to Himalayas at least 4000-5000 years ago [33] This suggests Lepcha population does not belong to Naga stock of Northeast India and the route of migration was probably not similar for the Lepchas of Sikkim and Mongoloid populations of Northeast India The... 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History Press, 1972 31 Snellgrove D, Richardson H: A cultural history of Tibet Boston and London, Shambhala, 1986 32 Lapolla JR: The roll of migration and language contact in the development of SinoTibetan language family Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance; Case Studies in Language Change Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 33 Cavalli-Sforza LL, Piazza MP: The history and geography of human genes... (Promega Corp, Madison, USA) The products were detected on a 5% denaturing polyacrylamide sequencing gels using the ABI PrismTM 377 DNA Sequencer (PE Applied Biosystems) and genotype classification was made by comparison with allelic ladders provided with the PowerplexTM 16 System Reference data: The comparison was done with STR data of various mongoloid populations of Northeast India viz Naga (n =... 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Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1994 34 Singh KS: India's Communities, National Series People of India Oxford University Press, 1998 35 Kashyap VK, Guha S, Trivedi R: Concordance study on 15 STR loci in Three Major Population of Himalayan State Sikkim J Forensic Sci 2002, 47:1163-1167 36 Sambrook J, Fritsch EF, Maniatis T: Molecular Cloning A Laboratory Manual 2nd ed Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory... Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, 1989 37 Dutta R, Kashyap VK: Genetic variation observed at three tetrameric short tandem repeat loci HUMTHO1, TPOX, and CSF1PO in five ethnic population groups of Northeastern India Am J Hum Biol 2001, 13: 23-29 38 Chattopadhyay P, Dutta R, Kashyap VK: Genetic variation observed at Nine Fluorescent labeled STR loci among Four Tribal population group of the Indian . SahaN,BhattacaryyaSP,MukhopadhyayB,BhattacharyyaSK,GuptaR,Basu A: A genetic study amongtheLepchasoftheDarjeelingareaofeasternIndia,Human Heredity198 7a, 37:113-121. 7. SahaN,MukhopadhyayB,BhattacharyyaSK,GuptaR,Basu A: Thedistributionof transferring,. KK, Wallace DC: Southeast Asia mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals genetic continuityofancientmongoloidmigrations.Genetics1992,130:139-152 6. SahaN,BhattacaryyaSP,MukhopadhyayB,BhattacharyyaSK,GuptaR,Basu A: A genetic study amongtheLepchasoftheDarjeelingareaofeasternIndia,Human Heredity198 7a, 37:113-121. 7.. representtheIndo- mongoloidethnicgroup,albeittheLepchaaresaidtobetheforerunneramongthesettlers in thestate,followedbyBhutiaandNepalimigration in thestate[1].TheBhutiacommunityis basicallythepeopleofTibetan(Chinese)origin,andtheirmigrationto Sikkim hadoccurred atleast800yearsago.TheNepalesearrived in Sikkim about200yearsago[1].Thoughthe migrationofLepchato Sikkim is a contentiousissue,therearetwomajortheoriesaboutthe Lepchaoriginandperiodofmigrationto Sikkim: (i) A smallpopulationofNagastockfrom theGarohillsofAssammigratedto Sikkim about2000yearsago,and(ii) a groupfromeast AsiamainlandmigratedthroughTibet(China)duringanearlierphaseofhumanmigrationto theHimalayasatleast3000yearsago[1]. Thecomplexmigrationandsettlementhistoryofdifferentgroups in Sikkim with respecttotheir genetic historyisstilllittleknown .Autosomaland Y chromosomeSTR markers[2-4],aswellasMitochondrialDNA[5]studiesillustratemigrationand genetic diversityofmongoloids in EastandSouth-EastAsia.Thesestudies,however,donotprovide anyinformationaboutmongoloidmigrationandsettlement in differentregionsofIndia. Although,severalstudieshavebeencarriedout on genetic diversity,phylogenetic relationship,andthepatternofgeneflowamongIndianmongoloidpopulationsbased on classical genetic markers,e.g.Tf,Ge,PGM1loci[6,7],serumproteinsandredcellenzymes [8],and a combined study byRoychoudhuryandNei.[9],theyfailtoprovideanyinsightinto thehistoryofmigrationandsettlementofMongoloids in India.Similarlythe study with17 polymorphicsystemofthebloodbyBhasinetal.1986providesinformationaboutthe genetic structureofpeopleof Sikkim tosomeextent. In this study weusedmicrosatelliteDNAmarkerstoaddresstheconsequenceof migratory events on genetic structureof Sikkim populationsas,theyaremoreabundant in the genomevis-à-visclassical genetic markers[10],havehighheterozygosity[11]and polymorphismisubiquitouseven in inbredpopulatiosnorspecies[12].Microsatellitesare easilyamenabletoautomatedprocedureoftyping[13]andtostatisticaltoolsusedforother markers[14,15].Theanalyticaltechniquesofquantitativegeneticsarebeingappliedto microsatellitealleles,astheyarecharacterizedquantitativelybytheirsize,i.e.numberof repeatofDNAmotif.Measuresofpopulationsubdivision[16]anddistancebetweenthe populations[17,18]aswellashigherstatistics[19,20]havebeenextensivelyemployedfor the study ofmicrosatellitepolymorphisms.