Fast STR Allele Identification With STRait Razor 3.0

• NCJ Number: 252454
• Journal: Forensic Science International: Genetics Volume: 30 Dated: September 2017 Pages: 18-23
• Author(s): August E. Woener; Jonathan L. King; Bruce Budowle
• Date Published: September 2017
• Length: 6 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2015-DN-BX-K067
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Enhancing Mixture Interpretation with Highly Informative STRs

Annotation

This project redesigned the short tandem repeat allele identification tool (STRait Razor), a program used to characterize the haplotypes of short tandem repeats (STRs) in massively parallel sequencing (MPS) data.

Abstract

STRait Razor v3.0 performs faster allele identification than its previous version (v2s), a speedup that is largely due to a novel indexing strategy used to perform (approximate) string matching of anchor sequences. Written in a portable compiled language, C++, STRait Razor v3.0 functions on all major operating systems including Microsoft Windows, and it has cross-platform multithreading support. In silico estimates of precision and accuracy of STRait Razor v3.0 were 100 percent in this evaluation, and results were highly concordant with those of Strait Razor v2s. STRait Razor v3.0 adds several key features that simplify the haplotype reporting process, including simple filters to remove low frequency haplotypes as well as merging haplotypes within a locus encoded on opposite strands of the DNA molecule. (publisher abstract modified)