Statistical Detection of Relatives Typed With Disjoint Forensic and Biomedical Loci

• NCJ Number: 252213
• Author(s): Jaehee Kim, Michael D. Edge, Bridget F.B. Algee-Hewitt, Jun Z. Li, Noah A. Rosenberg
• Date Published: October 2018
• Length: 11 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Advanced statistical population genetics methods for forensic DNA identification.

Annotation

Since in familial searching in forensic genetics a query DNA profile is tested against a database to determine whether it is a relative of a database entrant, the study reported in this article examined the potential for using linkage disequilibrium to identify pairs of profiles as belonging to relatives when the query and database rely on non-overlapping genetic markers.

Abstract

In considering data on individuals genotyped with both microsatellites used in forensic applications and genome-wide SNPs, this study found that 30-32 percent of parent-offspring pairs and 35-36 percent of sibling pairs could be identified from the SNPs of one member of the pair and the microsatellites of the other. This method suggests the possibility of performing familial searches of microsatellite databases by using query SNP profiles, or vice versa. It also indicates that privacy concerns rhat arise from computations across multiple databases that share no genetic markers in common involves risks, not only for database entrants, but for their close relatives as well. (Publisher abstract modified)