Paternity evaluation in cases lacking a mother and nondetectable alleles

Ranajit Chakraborty, Li Jin, Yixi Zhong

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

In parentage testing the formulae for computing paternity index and exclusion probability generally ignores the presence of nondetectable alleles at the loci tested. In contrast, it is now known that even when paternity testing is done with hypervariable DNA markers, nondetectable alleles should not be ignored. This work presents simple formulae needed with this consideration, to analyze paternity evaluation from DNA markers in cases where the mother of the disputed child is unavailable for testing. It is shown that even a modest frequency of nondetectable alleles (e.g., 2-5% per locus) may have a substantial impact on the paternity index when the child and/or the alleged father exhibits a single-banded DNA profile at a locus. Use of such formulae can generate a high probability of exclusion and a high paternity index when multiple independently segregating hypervariable DNA markers are used.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)127-131
Number of pages5
JournalInternational journal of legal medicine
Volume107
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1994

Keywords

  • DNA
  • Deficiency cases
  • Paternity testing

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