Structure and polymorphism of 16 novel Y-STRs in Chinese Han population

Design and development of novel single multiplex system incorporating 26 rapidly mutating Y-STRs; 26 RM Yplex

This article details the development of a single multiplex system amplifying 26 rapidly mutating Y-STR markers. A sequenced allelic ladder, constructed for calling alleles of all loci, is introduced. The multiplex system shows the ability to address the limitations of Y-STRs commercial kits in differentiating closely related males. The multiplex performed well in the prevalidation tests and showed great potential to be used in forensic casework.

RMplex: An efficient method for analyzing 30 Y-STRs with high mutation rates

Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) with high mutation rates are recognized as valuable genetic markers for differentiating paternally related men, who typically cannot be separated with standard Y-STRs, and were shown to provide paternal lineage differentiation on a higher resolution level than standard Y-STRs. Both features make Y-STRs with high mutation rates relevant in criminal casework, particularly in sexual assault cases involving highly unbalanced male-female DNA mixtures that often fail autosomal forensic STR profiling for the male donor. Previously, the number of known Y-STRs with mutation rates higher than 10^-2 per locus per generation termed rapidly mutating Y-STRs (RM Y-STRs) was limited to 13, which has recently been overcome by the discovery and characterization of 12 additional RM Y-STRs. Here, we present the development and validation of RMplex, an efficient genotyping system for analyzing 30 Y-STRs with high mutation rates, including all currently known RM Y-STRs, using multiplex PCR with capillary electrophoresis (CE) or massively parallel sequencing (MPS), overall targeting a total of 44 male-specific loci. If previously unavailable, repeat number assignations were provided based on newly generated MPS data. Validation tests based on the CE method demonstrated that the results were both repeatable and reproducible, full profiles were achieved with minimal input DNA of 250 pg for RMplex 1 and 100 pg for RMplex 2, and in the presence of inhibitors, or with a surplus of female DNA, the assays performed reasonably well. Application of RMplex to differentiate between paternally related men was exemplified in 32 males belonging to five different paternal pedigrees. Given further successful forensic validation testing, we envision the future application of RMplex in criminal cases where it is suspected, or cannot be excluded, that the crime scene trace originated from a male relatives of the suspect who is highlighted with standard Y-STR matching. Other applications of RMplex are in criminal cases without known suspects to differentiate between male relatives highlighted in familial searching based on standard Y-STR matching.

The construction and application of a new 17-plex Y-STR system using universal fluorescent PCR

Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) polymorphisms are useful in forensic identification, population genetics, and human structures. However, the current Y-STR systems are limited in discriminating distant relatives in a family with a low discrimination power. Increasing the capacity of detecting Y chromosomal polymorphisms will drastically narrow down the matching number of genealogy populations or pedigrees. In this study, we developed a system containing 17 Y-STRs that are complementary to the current commercially available Y-STR kits. This system was constructed by multiplex PCR with expected sizes of 126-400 bp labeled by different fluorescence molecules (DYS715, DYS709, DYS716, DYS713, and DYS607 labeled by FAM; DYS718, DYS723, DYS708, and DYS714 labeled by JOE; DYS712, DYS717, DYS721, and DYS605 labeled by TAMRA; and DYS719, DYS726, DYS598, and DYS722 labeled by ROX). The system was extensively tested for sensitivity, male specificity, species specificity, mixture, population genetics, and mutation rates following the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) guidelines. The genetic data were obtained from eight populations with a total of 1260 individuals. Our results showed that all the 17 Y-STRs are human- and male-specific and include only one copy of the Y-chromosome. The 17 Y-STR system detects 143 alleles and has a high discrimination power (0.996031746). Mutation rates were different among the 17 Y-STRs, ranging from 0.30 to 3.03%. In conclusion, our study provides a robust, sensitive, and cost-effective genotyping method for human identification, which will be beneficial for narrowing the search scope when applied to genealogy searching with the Y-STR DNA databank.

Multiplex Y-STRs analysis using the ion torrent personal genome machine (PGM)

Massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technologies allow parallel sequencing analyses of many targeted regions of multiple samples at desirable depth of coverage. Routine use of MPS for forensic genetics is on the horizon. In this study, we explore the application of MPS technology in forensic Y-STR analysis. We designed a multiplex assay with 13 Y-STR loci (DYS19, DYS389 I, DYS389 II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS635, GATA-H4) for the purpose of MPS. The multiplex Y-STR assay was amplified in 42 unrelated male individuals and amplicons were sequenced simultaneously using the ion torrent personal genome machine (PGM) system. All loci were detected successfully, except for DYS389 II that exhibited a failure rate of 1.8% due to the relatively long amplicon sizes. We observed 7, 3, 2, 6 and 5 new alleles, respectively in DYS389 II, DYS390, DYS437, DYS448 and DYS635 due to the presence of sub-repeat composition differences, and a new allele in DYS438 because of nucleotide substitution. One allele of DYS390 was inconsistent with allele call from conventional capillary electrophoresis (CE) because of 4 bp deletions upstream of the core repeat unit. This study demonstrates that Y-STR typing by MPS can provide more genetic information, holding the promise for high discriminatory power.