A total of 52 SNPs reported to be polymorphic in European, Asian and African populations were selected. Of these, 42 were from the distal regions of each autosome (except chromosome 19). Nearly all selected SNPs were located at least 100 kb distant from known genes and commonly used STRs. We established a highly sensitive and reproducible SNP-typing method with amplification of all 52 DNA fragments in one PCR reaction followed by detection of the SNPs with two single base extension reactions analysed using CE. The amplicons ranged from 59 to 115 bp in length. Complete SNP profiles were obtained from 500 pg DNA. The 52 loci were efficiently amplified from degraded samples where previously only partial STR profiles had been obtained. A total of 700 individuals from Denmark, Greenland, Somalia, Turkey, China, Germany, Taiwan, Thailand and Japan were typed, and the allele frequencies estimated. All 52 SNPs were polymorphic in the three major population groups. The mean match probability was at least 5.0 x 10(-19) in the populations studied. Typical paternity indices ranged from 336 000 in Asians to 549 000 in Europeans. Details of the 52 SNP loci and population data generated in this work are freely available at http://www.snpforid.org.

The European Consortium "High-throughput analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms for the forensic identification of persons--SNPforID", has performed a selection of candidate Y-chromosome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for making inferences on the geographic origin of an unknown sample. From more than 200 SNPs compiled in the phylogenetic tree published by the Y-Chromosome Consortium, and looking at the population studies previously published, a package of 29 SNPs has been selected for the identification of major population haplogroups. A "Major Y-chromosome haplogroup typing kit" has been developed, which allows the multiplex amplification of all 29 SNPs in a single reaction. Allele genotyping was performed with a single base extension reaction (minisequencing) detected by CE. The validation of the multiplex was performed in a total of 1126 unrelated males distributed among 12 worldwide populations. The approach takes advantage of the specific geographic distribution of the Y-chromosome haplogroups and demonstrates the utility of binary polymorphisms to infer the origin of a male lineage.

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