Genetic Mapping of 15 Human X Chromosomal Forensic Short Tandem Repeat (STR) Loci by Means of Multi-core Parallelization

• NCJ Number: 252097
• Journal: Forensic Science International: Genetics Volume: 25 Dated: November 2016 Pages: 39-44
• Date Published: November 2016
• Author(s): Toni M. Diegoli; Heinrich Rohde; Stefan Borowski; Michael Krawczak; Michael D. Coble; Michael Nothnagel
• Length: 6 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2011-DN-BX-K401
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

Since joint consideration of many X chromosomal short tandem repeat (X STR) markers at a time increases their discriminatory power but requires inter-marker recombination rates to be accurately known due to physical linkage, this article describes a project that estimated the recombination rates between 15 well-established X STR markers, using genotype data from 158 families (1,041 individuals) and following a previously proposed likelihood-based approach that allows for single-step mutations.

Abstract

In order to meet the computational requirements of this family-based type of analysis, researchers modified a previous implementation, so as to allow multi-core parallelization on a high-performance computing system. Although the researchers obtained recombination-rate estimates larger than zero for all but one pair of adjacent markers within the four previously proposed linkage groups, none of the three X STR pairs defining the junctions of these groups yielded a recombination rate estimate of 0.50. Corroborating previous studies, these results thus argue against a simple model of independent X chromosomal linkage groups; moreover, the refined recombination fraction estimates obtained in this study will facilitate the appropriate joint consideration of all 15 investigated markers in forensic analysis. 1 figure (Publisher abstract modified)