Our Center of  Molecular Diagnosis and Genetic Research is involved in a project on person identification by DNA profiles, using the AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit of Applied Biosystems. We have collected blood samples from 60 unrelated individuals, 34 males and 26 females selected randomly. The PCR kit used was AmpFlSTR Identifiler, that include 15 STR and amelogenin, and the products of multiplex PCR were analysed in DNA Analyser ABIPRISM 310. We have determined the allele frequencies for all 15 STR loci and some genetic and statistic parameters of forensic importance. A similar study was performed from Italian researchers in an Albanian sample of emigrants from northern Italy using PowerPlex 16 STR loci (Robino C. et al., J. Forensic Sci. 46(4):998, 2001).

In our study the most frequent alleles for the markers analysed are:

D3S1358         16 (29,2%), 15 (20,8%);         VWA               18 (21,7%), 17 (20,8%);

TPOX                8 (48,3%), 11 (36,6%);         THO1               9.3 (25%),    6 (22,5%);

FGA                23 (15,4%), 21 (12,8%);         D21S11           29 (29,6%), 30 (20%);

D8S1179         13 (33,3%), 14 (30%);            D5S818           11 (34,2%), 12 (32,4%);

D13S317         11 (30,3%), 12 (22,1%);         D7S820           8 and 10 (26%), 11 (20,4%);

D16S539         12 (33,3%), 11 (27,3%);         D19S433         14 (30,2%), 13 (24,4%);

D18S515         16 (21,6%), 14 (20,3%);         CSF1PO          11 (39,6%), 12 (29,3%);

D2S1338         17 (24,6%), 23 (21,0%).

Preliminary results and differencies in allele frequencies among other populations are discussed. This is the first study about Albanian population structure using AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit which was performed in Albania.