Inferring Chinese surnames with Y-STR profiles

Cheng-Min Shi; Changzhen Li; Liang Ma; Lianjiang Chi; Jing Zhao; Wuzhou Yuan; Zhendiao Zhou; Jiang-Wei Yan; Hua Chen

doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2017.11.014

Inferring Chinese surnames with Y-STR profiles

Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2018 Mar:33:66-71. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2017.11.014. Epub 2017 Nov 24.

Authors

Cheng-Min Shi¹, Changzhen Li², Liang Ma¹, Lianjiang Chi¹, Jing Zhao³, Wuzhou Yuan⁴, Zhendiao Zhou⁴, Jiang-Wei Yan⁵, Hua Chen⁶

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² Jining Public Security Bureau, Shandong Province 272100, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Forensic Genomics, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁵ CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Forensic Genomics, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: yanjw@big.ac.cn.
⁶ CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Forensic Genomics, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: chenh@big.ac.cn.

PMID: 29197717
DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2017.11.014

Abstract

Co-ancestry of human surnames and Y-chromosomes in most human populations and social groups suggests the possibility of inferring one from the other. However, such an intuitive perspective remains to be formally explored. In the present study, we develop two computational methods, based on cosine distance (d_cos) and coalescence distance (d_coal) respectively, to infer surnames from Y-STR profiles. We also survey Y-STR variations at 15 loci for 19,009 individuals of Shandong Province in China. For a total of 266 surnames included in the data set, our methods can pinpoint to a single surname with an average accuracy of 65%, and with an average accuracy higher than 80% when providing >4 candidate surnames. We also demonstrate that increasing the sample size of surnames and the number of STR loci improves the accuracy of surname inference. Our results indicate that the 15 non-duplicated Y-STR loci contain information from which surname can be reliably inferred for Chinese populations, showing a promising application in forensics.

Keywords: Coalescence; Cosine distance; STR; Surname; Y-chromosome.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Asian People / genetics*
China
Chromosomes, Human, Y*
DNA Fingerprinting
Genetics, Population*
Genotype
Humans
Male
Microsatellite Repeats*
Models, Genetic
Names*