STR Markers for Kinship Analysis

During the last decades the ground-breeding Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus, Linnaeus, 1758) has changed its breeding habitats in Europe to agricultural areas in which many local populations would be close to extinction without a special nest protection regime. Although Montagu’s harrier is a well-studied species in terms of ecology and breeding biology, its genetic structure and population genetics are almost unknown. As there is a lack of good genetic markers we developed a set of 19 microsatellite markers comprising 16 new STR markers which were identified by next-generation sequencing (NGS) using 454 shot-gun pyrosequencing of genomic DNA. The STR markers were arranged into three multiplex PCR sets for high throughput genotyping and characterised. The marker set provides a powerful tool for kinship analysis. The combined non-exclusion probability for parent pairs was 1.13*10-11. Only three loci showed PIC values < 0.50. In total, 121 known family relationships were compared with genetically calculated ones to test the markers suitability for parentage analysis. In 97.5% of all cases full-sibships were accurately determined and 97.6% of all mothers were assigned correctly to their chicks. The present multiplex PCR panels can be used to investigate several hypotheses concerning breeding behaviour, kinship, exchange rates between populations and phylogeography.

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Development of a New Screening Method “Allele Matching Cut Off Score (AMCOS)” for Faster Kinship Analysis in Cases of Mass Disasters: A Proof of Concept Study

10.21203/rs.3.rs-525011/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sonia Kakkar ◽

Phulen Sarma ◽

Inusha Pannigrihi ◽

S. P. Mandal ◽

R. K. Kumawat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Screening Method ◽

Recent Common Ancestor ◽

Frequency Data ◽

Statistical Parameters ◽

Kinship Analysis ◽

Str Markers ◽

Forensic Practice ◽

Matching Score ◽

Mass Disasters ◽

Shared Alleles

Abstract kinship analysis in forensic is based on calculation of respective kinship indices. But calculation of the same is possible only when the subject under identification has been associated to a particular population whose gene frequency data is available for the particular set of markers used in forensic practices. In case of the mass disasters where a huge number of individuals are to be identified, gathering the population frequency data and calculating the kinship indices can be an intricate progression requiring a lot of time and huge resources. The present study is based on allele matching score values which doesn’t require the use of allele frequency data to establish kinship. This method is based on the allele sharing approach which simply refers to the number of shared alleles (1 or 2) between two individuals; also known as identical by state (IBS) alleles which might have been inherited from a recent common ancestor in which the alleles are identical by descendent (IBD). In case of mass disasters this method can be used to narrow down the investigation by screening the number of related individuals which can further be confirmed with other tests if required. This method has been tested for various statistical parameters and has shown promising values which suggests the potential use of this method in forensic practice. This method has been tested on siblings and grandparent-grandchildren by using autosomal and X-STR markers both as the reference samples from parents can’t always be available. The present study also compares the results shown by autosomal and X-STR markers in siblings and grandparent-grandchildren identification, thereby suggesting the better set of markers for siblings and grandparent-grandchildren identification.

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