Bioinformatics and human identification in mass fatality incidents: the world trade center disaster |
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Authors: | Leclair Benoît Shaler Robert Carmody George R Eliason Kristilyn Hendrickson Brant C Judkins Thad Norton Michael J Sears Christopher Scholl Tom |
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Affiliation: | Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc., 320 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA. bleclair@myriad.com |
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Abstract: | Victim identification initiatives undertaken in the wake of Mass Fatality Incidents (MFIs) where high-body fragmentation has been sustained are often dependent on DNA typing technologies to complete their mandate. The success of these endeavors is linked to the choice of DNA typing methods and the bioinformatic tools required to make the necessary associations. Several bioinformatic tools were developed to assist with the identification of the victims of the World Trade Center attacks, one of the most complex incidents to date. This report describes one of these tools, the Mass Disaster Kinship Analysis Program (MDKAP), a pair-wise comparison software designed to handle large numbers of complete or partial Short Tandem Repeats (STR) genotypes, and infer identity of, or biological relationships between tested samples. The software performs all functions required to take full advantage of the information content of processed genotypic data sets from large-scale MFIs, including the collapse of victims data sets, remains re-association, virtual genotype generation through gap-filling, parentage trio searching, and a consistency check of reported/inferred biological relationships within families. Although very few WTC victims were genetically related, the software can detect parentage trios from within a victim's genotype data set through a nontriangulated approach that screens all possible parentage trios. All software-inferred relationships from WTC data were confirmed by independent statistical analysis. With a 13 STR loci complement, a fortuitous parentage trio (FPT) involving nonrelated individuals was detected. Additional STR loci would be required to reduce the risk of an FPT going undetected in large-scale MFIs involving related individuals among the victims. Kinship analysis has proven successful in this incident but its continued success in larger scale MFIs is contingent on the use of a sufficient number of STR loci to reduce the risk of undetected FPTs, the use of mtDNA and Y-STRs to confirm parentage and of bioinformatics that can support large-scale comparative genotyping schemes capable of detecting parentage trios from within a group of related victims. |
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Keywords: | forensic science DNA typing polymerase chain reaction mass fatality incidents mass disaster software D3S1358 vWA FGA D8S1179 D21S11 D18S51 D5S818 D13S317 D7S820 THOI TPOX CSF1PO D16S539 |
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