Choosing Relatives for DNA Identification of Missing Persons

:  DNA‐based analysis is integral to missing person identification cases. When direct references are not available, indirect relative references can be used to identify missing persons by kinship analysis. Generally, more reference relatives render greater accuracy of identification. However, it is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forensic sciences 2011-01, Vol.56 (s1), p.S23-S28
Main Authors: Ge, Jianye, Budowle, Bruce, Chakraborty, Ranajit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chromosomes
Chromosomes, Human, Y
Databases, Nucleic Acid
DNA Fingerprinting - methods
DNA identification
DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics
Female
forensic science
Forensic sciences
Gene Frequency
Genealogy
Genetic markers
Genetics
Humans
Likelihood Functions
Male
missing person
Missing persons
Mitochondrial DNA
Pedigree
pedigree likelihood ratio
posterior odds
short tandem repeats
Simulation
Tandem Repeat Sequences
Y chromosome
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Summary::  DNA‐based analysis is integral to missing person identification cases. When direct references are not available, indirect relative references can be used to identify missing persons by kinship analysis. Generally, more reference relatives render greater accuracy of identification. However, it is costly to type multiple references. Thus, at times, decisions may need to be made on which relatives to type. In this study, pedigrees for 37 common reference scenarios with 13 CODIS STRs were simulated to rank the information content of different combinations of relatives. The results confirm that first‐order relatives (parents and fullsibs) are the most preferred relatives to identify missing persons; fullsibs are also informative. Less genetic dependence between references provides a higher on average likelihood ratio. Distant relatives may not be helpful solely by autosomal markers. But lineage‐based Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA markers can increase the likelihood ratio or serve as filters to exclude putative relationships.
ISSN:0022-1198
1556-4029
DOI:10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01631.x