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Allele frequencies and forensic statistics of 13 autosomal short tandem repeat loci were estimated in 56 unrelated Iranian individuals. Except for two loci which were monomorph, a total of 5-11 alleles at each locus were observed and altogether 94 alleles for all selected loci were found. Our results show that 11 out of 13 nonCODIS STR loci are polymorphic and can be useful for human identification and kinship analysis and relationship investigations in Iran.

Albinism is a heterogeneous genetic disorder of melanin synthesis that results in hypopigmented hair, skin and eyes. It is associated with decreased visual acuity, nystagmus, strabismus and photophobia. Six genes are known to be involved in nonsyndromic oculocutaneous albinism (OCA). In this study, we aimed to find the disease causing mutations in albinism patients using homozygosity mapping. Twenty three unrelated patients with nonsyndromic OCA or autosomal recessive ocular albinism were recruited in this study. All of the patients' parents had consanguineous marriage and all were screened for TYR mutations previously. At first, we performed homozygosity mapping using fluorescently labeled primers to amplify a novel panel of 13 STR markers inside the OCA genes and then the screened loci in each family were studied using PCR and cycle sequencing methods. We found five mutations including three mutations in OCA2, one mutation in SLC45A2 and one mutation in C10ORF11 genes, all of which were novel. In cases where the disease causing mutations are identical by descent due to a common ancestor, these STR markers can enable us to screen for the responsible genes.

Purpose: Albinism is a heterogeneous genetic disorder of melanin synthesis that results in hypopigmented eyes (in patients with ocular albinism) or hair, skin, and eyes (in individuals with oculocutaneous albinism). It is associated with decreased visual acuity, nystagmus, strabismus, and photophobia. The tyrosinase gene is known to be involved in both oculocutaneous albinism and autosomal recessive ocular albinism. In this study, we aimed to screen the mutations in the TYR gene in the nonsyndromic OCA and autosomal recessive ocular albinism patients from Iran., Methods: The tyrosinase gene was examined in 23 unrelated patients with autosomal recessive ocular albinism or nonsyndromic OCA using DNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis., Results: TYR gene mutations were identified in 14 (app. 60%) albinism patients., Conclusions: We found 10 mutations, 3 of which were novel. No mutation was found in our ocular albinism patients, but one of them was heterozygous for the p.R402Q polymorphism.

Duchenne's muscular dystrophy and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) are X-linked recessive disorders caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene. In this project, 100 unrelated male patients were initially screened for deletions in the dystrophin gene by multiplex polymerase chain reaction, of whom 52 were positive. We performed the multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) method on 43 of the remaining 48 patients, as well as 12 females suspected to be carriers, to detect deletions and duplications of their dystrophin gene. The MLPA method found deletions and duplications in 8 unidentified male patients. Sequencing revealed that in one case the deletion detected was a point mutation. One of 12 females was heterozygous for deletion of exons 49 and 50. In conclusion, the MLPA method proved to be reliable for studying affected males as well as female carriers.