Similarly,
if better individual resolution or ancestry inference are desired, adding some of the SNPs from already published individual identification panels [2] and [3] or ancestry inference panels [3], [4], [7] and [12] could improve those aspects in an individual analysis. Carefully selected and NLG919 in vivo documented SNP panels have the potential to become the major forensic tools because of their statistical power and low cost. The availability of inexpensive methods (see reviews [39] and [40]) for detecting SNPs and for sequencing will make carefully selected SNP-based panels an increasingly attractive alternative to STRPs in forensic applications such as individual identification, lineage inference, ancestry ascertainment, and phenotype inference. SNP panels can provide more information and greater accuracy than the current CODIS panels for all forensic
applications. Incorporating well characterized SNP panels into national databases would help foster the acceptance of SNP-based tools in the courts. The aim of this project was to accumulate sufficient evidence to validate the feasibility and utility of microhaps for forensic work especially for distinguishing familial lineages. The 31 independent microhaps have multiple alleles and high levels of heterozygosity in the 54 population samples from around the world that we have studied. These loci have a better ability to infer relationships on a per locus basis than any single SNP. Several of the loci also show sufficient allele frequency variation that collectively the panel provides clear distinction of world populations ZD1839 into five distinct groups. Although designed as optimal markers for genotyping by sequencing, these microhaps also have high levels of genotype resolvability when the SNPs are typed separately. As noted previously [17] these microhaps have the evolutionary stability that allows haplotypes to be equated with alleles basically identical by descent in broader studies. Together, these aspects of the panel provide substantial support for the validity of this approach. A bonus feature of the microhaplotype loci when genotyped by sequencing is that mixtures
can be detected qualitatively when three or more alleles are detected pentoxifylline at a locus and potentially quantified by the different numbers of reads for each allele. The match probabilities achieved by this pilot panel of 31 unlinked microhaps are already comparable to or better than the current 13 CODIS STRPs and they compare favorably to the panel of 45 unlinked IISNPs that we reported in an earlier study [1] and [2], at least for all the large major populations studied, including those routinely encountered in forensic labs in the U.S. and Europe. The panel also demonstrates distinct patterns of microhap frequencies for populations deriving from the major geographical regions of the world thereby helping when forensic applications deal with ancestry inference.