Y-Chromosome Testing and Value of Additional Y-STR Loci

Participants: John M. Butler, Amy E. Decker, Peter M. Vallone, and Margaret C. Kline (and formerly Richard Schoske)

Project Timeframe: July 2002 to present

Purpose: The need for additional Y-STR loci has become increasingly important as the potential forensic uses of Y chromosome testing are explored. While several commercial Y-STR kits have been developed to permit rapid Y-STR typing, additional loci could assist in increasing the power of discrimination between closely related male lineages. At the same time, new Y-STR loci may also help to separate related males, such as fathers and sons.

Progress: We have examined 37 Y-STR loci (including the 17 Yfiler kit loci) across approximately 660 U.S. Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic samples. An approach for selecting and evaluating these loci has been developed and the ability of additional loci beyond those used in commercial kits has been explored to resolve samples with a common type. In addition, full concordance has been observed where the Y-STR loci overlap between in-house multiplex assays and commercial Y-STR kits. To-date more than 80 Y-STRs have been examined in a common set of U.S. population samples to compare their relative diversity values. A number of these new loci are being characterized for addition to the NIST SRM 2395 Human Y-Chromosome DNA Profiling Standard.

Publications or Presentations Resulting From This Project:

Decker, A.E., Kline, M.C., Vallone, P.M., Butler, J.M. (2007) The impact of additional Y-STR loci on resolving common haplotypes and closely related individuals. FSI Genetics 1:215-217.

 

Butler, J.M., Decker, A.E., Vallone, P.M., Kline, M.C. (2006) Allele frequencies for 27 Y-STR loci with U.S. Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic samples. Forensic Sci. Int. 156:250-260.

 

Schoske, R., Vallone, P.M., Kline, M.C., Redman, J.W., Butler, J.M. (2004) High-throughput Y-STR typing of U.S. populations with 27 regions of the Y chromosome using two multiplex PCR assays. Forensic Sci. Int. 139: 107-121.

 

Amy Decker poster at 58th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (Seattle, WA), February 23, 2006, "Examination of Additional Y-STR Loci for Increased Resolution of Common Haplotypes" [.pdf]

 

Amy Decker poster at 17th International Symposium on Human Identification (Nashville, TN), October 10-12, 2006, "Evaluation of Additional Y-STR Loci to Resolve Common Haplotypes" [.pdf]

 

John Butler workshop with Mike Coble to Northeastern Association of Forensic Scientists (NEAFS) (Rye Brook, NY), November 1, 2006, "Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Analysis" [link to workshop webpage]

John Butler seminar at California Department of Justice DNA Laboratory (Richmond, CA), March 7, 2007, "Y-STRs: Markers, Mutations, and More" [.pdf]

Amy Decker presentation at Fourth Annual Advanced DNA Technical Workshop (Bode) East (Captiva Island, FL), May 22, 2007, "Characterization of Additional Loci to Benefit Human Identity Testing"

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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.