الفهرس 
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Abstract
Short tandem repeats (STRs) are widespread
throughout the human genome and are a rich source of
highly polymorphic markers. They can be amplified,
separated and analyzed inorder to be used effectively for
individual identification and population structure analysis
purposes.
Egypt is a transcontinental country containing
substantial ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity among
its people. Multiplex STR typing was conducted in the
present study to investigate the genetic variation at 15
AmpFℓSTR® Identifiler® plus short tandem repeat (STR)
loci, within and between seven Egyptian populations.
Samples of 407 unrelated individuals from Northern
Coast, Delta, Greater Cairo, Canal governorates, Northern
Upper Egypt, Southern Upper Egypt and Sinai were
investigated. All loci were highly polymorphic in all
sample populations. The data were analyzed to give
information on allele frequencies and other forensic
statistical parameters. After applying Bonferroni
correction, the agreement with Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium (HWE) was confirmed for all loci (exact test),and for all loci with the exception of D3S1358, D19S433
and D18S51 (X2 test). The levels of genetic differentiation
and the genetic relationships among populations were
evaluated by coefficient of genetic differentiation (FST)
and genetic distance of Nei. The most differentiated
populations were found between Sinai and Southern
Upper Egypt. These two populations showed the lowest
within-population variation, whereas the population of
Greater Cairo showed the highest within-population
variation as indicated by the fixation index (FIS). The
results demonstrated that the effectiveness of STR
markers enhances their value for identifying the genetic
variation within and between Egyptian populations. The
varying levels of genetic relatedness among the
populations in relation to their geographical distribution
are discussed.
Keywords: DNA typing; Short tandem repeats;
Multiplex-PCR; Egyptian populations.