MiniFiler Concordance Study
Participants: Carolyn R. "Becky" Hill, Margaret C. Kline, and John M. Butler (in collaboration with Applied Biosystems' scientists Lori K. Hennessey, Julio J. Mulero, Robert E. Lagace, Chien-Wei Chang)
Project Timeframe: March 2006 to November 2006
Purpose: The AmpFlSTR® MiniFilerÔ PCR Amplification kit developed by Applied Biosystems enables size reduction on eight of the larger STR loci amplified in the Identifiler® kit, which will aid recovery of information from highly degraded DNA samples. The MiniFiler™ Kit amplifies CSF1PO, FGA, D2S1338, D7S820, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, and D21S11 as well as the sex-typing locus amelogenin.
Progress: A total of 1,308 samples were evaluated with both the MiniFiler™ and Identifiler® STR kits: 449 African American, 445 Caucasian, 207 Hispanic, and 207 Asian individuals. Full concordance between Identifiler and MiniFiler Kits was observed in 99.7% (10,437 out of 10,464) STR allele calls compared. The 27 differences encompass the loci D13S317 (n=14) and D16S539 (n=10) as well as D18S51 (n=1), D7S820 (n=1), and CSF1PO (n=1). Genotyping discrepancies between the Identifiler and MiniFiler kits were confirmed by re-amplification of the samples and further testing using the PowerPlex® 16 kit in many cases. DNA sequence analysis was also performed in order to understand the nature of the genetic variations causing the allele dropout or apparent repeat unit shift.
Publications or Presentations Resulting From This Project:
Butler, J.M. (2006) MiniSTRs: past, present, and future. Forensic News (Applied Biosystems), October 2006 [.pdf]
Hill, C.R., Kline, M.C., Mulero, J.J., Lagace, R.E., Chang, C.-W., Hennessy, L.K., Butler, J.M. (2007) Concordance study between the AmpFlSTR MiniFiler PCR Amplification Kit and conventional STR typing kits. J. Forensic Sci. 52(4): 870-873.
Becky Hill presentation at the Mid-Atlantic Association of Forensic Scientists annual meeting (Washington, DC), May 24, 2007, "An Evaluation of CODIS and non-CODIS miniSTR Loci" [.pdf]
[Return to NIJ Projects page] [Return to STRBase]
Last updated: 06/27/2007
Disclaimer: This project was supported by National Institute of Justice Grant Number 2003-IJ-R-029, which is an interagency agreement between NIJ and the NIST Office of Law Enforcement Standards, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice. Certain commercial equipment, instruments and materials are identified in order to specify experimental procedures as completely as possible. In no case does such identification imply a recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology nor does it imply that any of the materials, instruments or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose.