Comparing Six Commercial Autosomal STR Kits in a Large Dutch Population Sample

• NCJ Number: 246519
• Journal: Forensic Science International: Genetics Volume: 10 Dated: May 2014 Pages: 55-63
• Author(s): Antoinette A. Westen; Thirsa Kraaijenbrink; Elizaveta A. Robles de Medina; Joyce Harteveld; Patricia Willemse; Sofia B. Zuniga; Kristiaan J. van der Gaag; Natalie E.C. Weiler; Jeroen Warnaar; Manfred Kayser; Titia Sijen; Peter de Knijff
• Date Published: May 2014
• Length: 9 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compared the effectiveness of six commercial autosomal STR kits using a large Dutch population sample.

Abstract

Using a large sample from the Dutch population (n=2,085), this study compared the effectiveness of 6 commercial autosomal STR (short tandem repeat) kits. The kits tested were the PowerPlex 16, the ESX-16 and ESI-171 Systems, the Investigator ESSplex Kit, and the AmpFISTR Identifier and NGM PCR Amplification Kits. The DNA samples were analyzed using the six different kits, resulting in the detection of only 19 discordances for an overall concordance rate of 99.995 percent. The number of null or shifted alleles varied for each of the commercial kits, with seven varying in the Identifiler, seven in NGM2, three in ESI-17, one in PowerPlex 16, one in ESS, and none in ESX-16. Using such a large sample allowed the researchers to generate a highly detailed allele frequency database that could be used for evidentiary value calculations. 4 tables, 1 appendix, and 29 references