Pakistan harbors 18 major ethnic groups and Hazara is one of the distinct but smaller groups comprising 0.090% of the total population of Pakistan. Hazara individuals have typical Mongolian facial features and they claim to be descendants of Genghis Khan's army in the first quarter of the thirteenth century AD. Previous study based on limited number of Y STRs with limited number of samples showed that Hazaras are descendants of Mongols. In this study, we genotyped 198 unrelated males (153 Hazara, 15 Baluchi and 30 Mongols) living in Quetta, Baluchistan, Pakistan and Inner Mongolia, China respectively, for a total of 26 (n=153) to 29 (n=92) Y-chromosomal STR loci. 140 unique haplotypes were developed for Hazara population using the PowerPlex Y23 loci. The Y-STR locus showed a genetic diversity ranging from 0.2384 to 0.7918, and an overall discrimination capacity (DC) of 91.5%. The Hazara population samples were profiled for three additional Y-STRs (DYS388, DYS449 and DYS460), which increased the number of unique haplotypes to 144 while the DC increased to 94.11% in Hazara Population of Pakistan. Interestingly null alleles were observed at DYS448 with a specific mutation patterns in 25 individuals of Hazara population. The Hazaras showed significant differences from other local populations of Pakistan as well as neighboring populations, but had considerable genetic affinities to Kazakhs and Mongols. There was a lack of data for Hazara population of Pakistan and our results thus contribute to understanding the potential forensic usefulness of the 26 Y-STRs studied and also shed light on the population history of Pakistani Hazara population.

Mongol-like-horsemen-turned-merchants from Manchuria are known as Manchus, originally their homeland was centered around what is nowadays the city of Shenyang in northeast China. Previously, worldwide analysis of Y-chromosomal haplotype diversity for 23 STR loci and Y-STR databases with PowerPlex® Y23 System (Promega Corporation Madison, USA) kit were created with collaborative efforts, but Manchu population data was missing. In current study, PowerPlex® Y23 System loci were examined in 328 unrelated Manchu male individuals from Xiuyan and Huanren Manchu autonomous counties in Liaoning province, to calculate the forensic parameters of the 23 STR loci. A total of 323 different haplotypes were observed on these 23 Y-STR loci. The gene diversities ranged from 0.3820 (DYS391) to 0.9696 (DYS385a, b). The overall haplotype diversity was 0.9999 +/-0.0002 at PowerPlex® Y23 System. Rst pairwise analyses, multidimensional scaling plot and linear discriminatory analysis showed the genetic structure of Manchu population was significantly different from some of Chinese populations like Tibetan andUyghur. Results of our study showed that PowerPlex® Y23 System marker set provided substantially stronger discriminatory power in Manchu population of China.

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Toxicity of heavy-metals in soil is a major constraint for the production of carrots (Daucus carota L.). Different plant growth regulators are being used to overcome this problem. It has been found that plant growth regulators induce stress tolerance in plants. In this study, the role of exogenously applied plant growth regulator, gibberellic acid (GA3) was examined in soil grown two carrot cultivars under four different levels of lead (0, 50, 100, and 150 mg/kg) with one level of gibberellic acid (50 ppm). Results showed that Pb stress retarded the plant growth and reduced chlorophyll contents in the leaves of both carrot cultivars. A significant decrease was observed in photosynthetic attributes by Pb addition alone. However, exogenously applied GA3 ameliorated the plant growth and chlorophyll contents in the leaves of both carrot cultivars under Pb stressed conditions. Moreover, GA3 also decreased the uptake of Pb concentration in carrot leaves and roots. In addition, GA3 significantly regulated the phenolic compounds concentration in both carrot cultivars under Pb stress. In this study, cultivar T-29 was found to be more tolerant to Pb stress, however, cultivar Mevarick experienced higher damage regarding plant growth under Pb stress.

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