The impact of silent alleles in kinship probability calculations

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2008

Authors

Amorim, A (Author) FCUP; Carneiro, J (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series

Vol. 1 No. 1

Pages: 638-639

ISSN: 1875-1768

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge

Scopus - 4 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-007-N3J

DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigss.2007.10.024

Abstract (EN): A silent gene formally designates a rare (non-polymorphic, with frequency below 1%) recessive allele. Therefore, its presence can be unnoticed, even in large samples. The currently used routines in kinship expertise are based on the analysis of autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci, which are treated as harbouring just codominant alleles. Only when incompatible results are obtained (like apparent opposite homozygosity), the silent allele is invoked. The main purpose of this work is to quantify the impact of silent alleles in paternity testing in "non-exclusion" situations. We demonstrate that silent alleles can non-negligibly lower the paternity index in trios where opposite homozygosity is observed and we provide some examples in real cases.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 2