The Enhancement of the Native American CODIS STR Database for Use in Forensic Casework

• NCJ Number: 253079
• Author(s): Sreetharan Kanthaswamy; Kelly L. McCulloh; Jillian Ng; Robert F. Oldt; Jessica A. Weise; Joy Viray; Bruce Budowle; David Glenn Smith
• Date Published: July 2016
• Length: 17 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2014-DN-BX-K024
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Award: The Enhancement of the Native American CODIS STR Database for Use in Forensic Casework

Annotation

Findings, methodology, and implications for criminal justice policy and practice are reported for a study whose goal was to produce information for a more geographically diverse representation of additional Native-American tribes that represent a greater number of geographic populations, so as to better characterize genetic variation among Native Americans.

Abstract

This study included eight autonomic loci in addition to the current 13 CODIS loci. Profiling new Native-American samples with these 21 loci will expand the existing pool of genetic profiles in the DNA database and provide more information on allele frequencies and population substructures. In addition, this study focused on the effect of geographic location on population structure and differentiation, quantifying such variations. The STR typing of the geographically representative North American tribes from the Arctic region, Baja California, California Great Basin, the Southeast, Mexico, the Midwest, and the Southwest expands the Native-American database, which can assist in forensic investigations and provide more reliable estimates of allele frequencies and genetic variation within and among the tribes. Just over 6,800 tribal DNA samples are currently archived and available at the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Davis. The 418 samples analyzed in the current study were the only ones that met the quantification requirements for STR analysis, The list of tribal samples included in this study and their geographic origins and mtDNA haplography; distributions are contained in one table of this report. Procedures are described for sample extraction, sample quantification, sample amplification, and statistical or other methods of data analysis. A table presents the estimates of allele numbers and observed and expected heteozygosities across the geographic regions for all 21 autonomic STR loci. Patterns in the data obtained are described. 4 tables and 27 references