NCJ Number
178569
Date Published
January 1999
Length
7 pages
Annotation
A database of 2,000 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) types in
North American populations was created and used to assess
the amount of variation and the degree of subpopulation
heterogeneity within the three major racial groups: black,
white, and Hispanic Americans.
Abstract
The project was based on the need in forensic cases to
assess the likelihood that individuals other than the person
being considered would have matching DNA profiles in a
particular cases. The method used involved detecting
variation by hybridization with sequence-specific
oligonucleotide (SSO) probes. Types of mtDNA wre determined
for 805 African-American persons from 10 populations, 922
white persons from 11 populations, and 555 Hispanic
Americans from 7 populations. Results revealed a
high level of variation in almost all populations. This
finding indicated that mtDNA analysis would probably be
informative in forensic casework, because the chance that
unrelated individuals would have matching mtDNA types was
less than 5 percent. Moreover, this finding was based on
SSO-type determination, which indicated only a fraction of
the total variation. Using the usual method of sequence
analysis should reveal even higher levels of variation.
Findings also indicated that it is appropriate to use mtDNA type databases for each racial group that combine all the
populations together. The mtDNA SSO-type databases will be
made available publicly via the Internet.
Date Published: January 1, 1999