Development and validation of a fast and automated DNA identification line.

The importance of DNA evidence for gaining investigative leads demands a fast workflow for forensic DNA profiling performed in large volumes. Therefore, we developed software solutions for automated DNA profile analysis, contamination check, major donor inference, DNA database (DDB) comparison and reporting of the conclusions. This represents the Fast DNA IDentification Line (FIDL) and this study describes its development, validation and implementation in criminal casework at the authors' institute. This first implementation regards single donor profiles and major contributors to mixtures. The validation included testing of the software components on their own and examination of the performance of different DDB search strategies. Furthermore, end-to-end testing was performed under three conditions: (1) testing of scenarios that can occur in DNA casework practice, (2) tests using three months of previous casework data, and (3) testing in a casework production environment in parallel to standard casework practices. The same DNA database candidates were retrieved by this automated line as by the manual workflow. The data flow was correct, results were reproducible and robust, results requiring manual analysis were correctly flagged, and reported results were as expected. Overall, we found FIDL valid for use in casework practice in our institute. The results from FIDL are automatically reported within three working days from receiving the trace sample. This includes the time needed for registration of the case, DNA extraction, quantification, polymerase chain reaction and capillary electrophoresis. FIDL itself takes less than two hours from intake of the raw CE data to reporting. Reported conclusions are one of five options: (1) candidate retrieved from DDB, (2) no candidate retrieved from DDB, (3) high evidential value with regards to reference within the case, (4) results require examination of expert, or (5) insufficient amount of DNA obtained to generate a DNA profile. In our current process, the automated report is sent within three working days and a complete report, with confirmation of the FIDL results, and signed by a reporting officer is sent at a later time. The signed report may include additional analyses regarding e.g. minor contributors. The automated report with first case results is quickly available to the police enabling them to act upon the DNA results prior to receiving the full DNA report. This line enables a uniform and efficient manner of handling large numbers of traces and cases and provides high value investigative leads in the early stages of the investigation.

Analysis of 36 Y-STR marker units including a concordance study among 2085 Dutch males.

The genotypes of 36 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) marker units were analysed in a Dutch population sample of 2085 males. Profiling results were compared for several partially overlapping kits, i.e. PowerPlex Y, Yfiler, PowerPlex Y23, and two in-house designed multiplexes with rapidly mutating Y-STRs. Nineteen Y-STR marker units, of which two are rapidly mutating, reside in at least two of these multiplexes, and for these markers concordance testing was performed. Two samples showed discordant genotyping results and the probable causative base change was revealed by Sanger sequencing. In addition, we encountered concordant, but aberrant genotyping results including one allele with low peak height and several null alleles. For 12 samples, this involved a null allele in two adjacent loci suggesting a large and recurrent deletion as the samples represent three distinct haplogroups. For each marker unit, the allele counts and frequencies are presented, as are the haplotype counts and haplotype diversities for several combinations of markers.

Toward male individualization with rapidly mutating y-chromosomal short tandem repeats.

Relevant for various areas of human genetics, Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) are commonly used for testing close paternal relationships among individuals and populations, and for male lineage identification. However, even the widely used 17-loci Yfiler set cannot resolve individuals and populations completely. Here, 52 centers generated quality-controlled data of 13 rapidly mutating (RM) Y-STRs in 14,644 related and unrelated males from 111 worldwide populations. Strikingly, >99% of the 12,272 unrelated males were completely individualized. Haplotype diversity was extremely high (global: 0.9999985, regional: 0.99836-0.9999988). Haplotype sharing between populations was almost absent except for six (0.05%) of the 12,156 haplotypes. Haplotype sharing within populations was generally rare (0.8% nonunique haplotypes), significantly lower in urban (0.9%) than rural (2.1%) and highest in endogamous groups (14.3%). Analysis of molecular variance revealed 99.98% of variation within populations, 0.018% among populations within groups, and 0.002% among groups. Of the 2,372 newly and 156 previously typed male relative pairs, 29% were differentiated including 27% of the 2,378 father-son pairs. Relative to Yfiler, haplotype diversity was increased in 86% of the populations tested and overall male relative differentiation was raised by 23.5%. Our study demonstrates the value of RM Y-STRs in identifying and separating unrelated and related males and provides a reference database.

Combining results of forensic STR kits: HDplex validation including allelic association and linkage testing with NGM and Identifiler loci.

The autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) kits that are currently used in forensic science have a high discrimination power. However, this discrimination power is sometimes not sufficient for complex kinship analyses or decreases when alleles are missing due to degradation of the DNA. The Investigator HDplex kit contains nine STRs that are additional to the commonly used forensic markers, and we validated this kit to assist human identification. With the increasing number of markers it becomes inevitable that forensic and kinship analyses include two or more STRs present on the same chromosome. To examine whether such markers can be regarded as independent, we evaluated the 30 STRs present in NGM, Identifiler and HDplex. Among these 30 markers, 17 syntenic STR pairs can be formed. Allelic association between these pairs was examined using 335 Dutch reference samples and no linkage disequilibrium was detected, which makes it possible to use the product rule for profile probability calculations in unrelated individuals. Linkage between syntenic STRs was studied by determining the recombination fraction between them in five three-generation CEPH families. The recombination fractions were compared to the physical and genetic distances between the markers. For most types of pedigrees, the kinship analyses can be performed using the product rule, and for those cases that require an alternative calculation method (Gill et al., Forensic Sci Int Genet 6:477-486, 2011), the recombination fractions as determined in this study can be used. Finally, we calculated the (combined) match probabilities, for the supplementary genotyping results of HDplex, NGM and Identifiler.

Assessment of the stochastic threshold, back- and forward stutter filters and low template techniques for NGM.

The AmpFlSTR(®) NGM™ kit shows an increased sensitivity compared to previous AmpFlSTR(®) kits, and the addition of a 29th PCR cycle was found to be the major cause for this. During in-house validation, we evaluated whether the increased sensitivity requires elevation of the stochastic threshold (below which alleles are prone to drop out due to low template amplification effects). To determine the stochastic threshold, over 500 false homozygotes were examined and the threshold was set at the rfu value where 99% of the alleles had a peak height below this value. Using 2085 Dutch reference samples, locus-specific stutter ratios were empirically determined and compared with the ones provided by Applied Biosystems. Application of sharp stutter filters is especially important for the analysis of unequal mixtures. To prevent allele calling of 99% of the -1 repeat unit stutters, thirteen stutter ratio filters could be lowered by up to 1.79% and for two loci the stutter ratio filters had to be elevated slightly with a maximum of 0.06%. At all loci +1 repeat stutters were visible for the higher DNA inputs and for lower inputs at the tri-nucleotide repeat locus D22S1045 as well. The overall +1 stutter ratio filter was set to 2.50% and for D22S1045 it was determined to be 7.27%. To find the optimal strategy to sensitise genotyping for low template DNA samples, a comparison was made between enhancing the capillary electrophoresis settings (9kV for 10s) and increasing the number of PCR cycles (29+5 cycles).