Study on genetic variations of the d-loop region in three Vietnamese ethnic groups Kinh, Lolo and Lahu

Abstract

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence analysis has been widely used to investigate population genetic and evolutional history of different ethnic groups worldwide. In this study, the D-loop region of 119 Vietnamese individuals belonging to three different ethnic groups was sequenced and compared with reference mtDNA on rCRS for genetic variations. Total 218 genetic polymorphisms were found in this population, among which 48 variations appeared with frequencies of more than 0.1. Furthcr statistỉcal analvsis showed that there were 23, 13 and 24 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) distributed differently between Kinh vs. Lolo, Kinh vs. Lahu , and Lolo vs. Lahu groups, respectively. The mean painvise genetic distances between each pair of ethnic groups were 0.0101, 0.0098 and 0.0092 for Kinh - Lolo, Kinh - Lahu, Lolo - Lahu, respectively.