Y-SNPs analysis using two different approaches in a Northern Portugal male population sample

The non-recombining portion of the human Y (NRY) chromosome has various types of variation, including single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). In spite of their low discrimination power, they provide a powerful and simple exclusion tool for forensic purposes. A special advantage of SNPs is that it can potentially detect smaller DNA fragments (analysis of degraded DNA).The aim of this work consisted in the analysis of a group of SNP polymorphisms (M2, M9, M35, M89, M45, M170, M172, M173, M207 and P25) in a Northern Portugal male population sample, which allows the determination of the most common European haplogroups, including the Northern Portugal ones.The method used for typing these polymorphisms was the real-time PCR with TaqMan probes on the ABI 7000 platform (Applied Biosystems).We had some difficulties in typing some of the markers using this approach. However, the preliminary results obtained for the defined haplogroups are in accordance with those described in close European populations. To confirm the typing and solve the doubts that emerged from the real-time approach, the samples were also typed using SNapShot.