Abstract A set of seven common Y-chromosome specific microsatellites has been used in the present report to type 308 individuals of 16 African population groups from Mozambique. These microsatellites include the DYS19, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS389I and DYS389II systems. The population structure was analysed and therefore genetic distances and several diversity indices were computed and compared with other populations around the world. The results obtained in the present study show that these populations share common characteristics with other available Bantu-speaking African population groups and clear differences with non-African ones. The combination of the analysis of Y-chromosome STRs with other more slowly mutating Y-chromosome polymorphisms (biallelic markers), mtDNA sequences and autosomal data for the same populations, will allow the analysis of human evolution in paternal lineages in different time scales. The forensic implications of these results are discussed.
