Report of the European DNA profiling group (EDNAP): an investigation of the complex STR loci D21S11 and HUMFIBRA (FGA).

This paper describes a collaborative exercise which was intended to demonstrate whether uniformity of DNA profiling results could be achieved between European laboratories using two complex short tandem repeat (STR) loci. The loci D21S11 and HUMFIBRA (FGA) were chosen because they are commonly used by different European laboratories. D21S11 has approximately 14 common alleles (f > 0.001), whereas HUMFIBRA has 19 common alleles. Laboratories were asked to test seven blood stains, one of which was a known control, and to report the results to the coordinating laboratory. The exercise demonstrated that complex STRs were amenable to standardisation.