We have studied the variability of the CA repeats in HVIII region of mitochondrial DNA among 60 unrelated Muslims of Srirangapatna town, Karnataka state in South India. MtDNA HVIII region was amplified and sequenced by Sanger sequencing method. A total of four alleles [(CA)4 to (CA)7 ] were detected and (CA)5 rCRS repeat was the most frequently defined repeat followed by (CA)4 28%, (CA)6 16%, (CA)7 15%. A statistical estimate indicated a high genetic diversity of 0.7218 and a low random mach probability of 0.2903, and the discrimination power calculated was 0.7097. Compared with those obtained in other explored world populations our data support the significance application of HVIII CA repeat polymorphism of mitochondrial DNA in the genetic differentiation of human populations and forensic investigation casework.
