Population Genetics of SNPs for Forensic Purposes

The objectives of the principal investigator's current NIJ grant are to develop two panels of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for forensic work. These include a panel for individual identification that would be applicable irrespective of ethnicity, and a panel suitable for refined inference of ancestry. The work performed so far has resulted in an Individual Identification SNP (IISNP) panel of 40 SNPs that provide highly probative match probabilities. The preliminary panel of SNPs to be used for Ancestry Identification (AISNPs) consists of 93 SNPs and is a significant improvement over previous SNP panels in that it is much more robust, identifies five geographic regions, and allows good resolution into populations within some of those regions but not within other regions. Fiscal year 2007 funding will allow the principal investigator to improve these panels in order to increase their utility and facilitate their transfer into operational forensic laboratories.

ca/ncf