title: On allele frequency computation from DNA typing data.
abstract: Forensic applications of DNA typing data require the estimation of the frequencies of all observed alleles, which is currently done by a fixed set of groupings (binning) of alleles in a database. Recently it's validity has been questioned on the ground that when a DNA fragment size is close to a bin boundary, the frequencies of all adjacent bins should be added. On the contrary, the current forensic database indicates that when the match window of a DNA fragment overlaps 2 bins, it is enough to consider the bin with the larger frequency, and this never underestimates the frequency within the match interval with the current choice of fixed-bin widths. On average, the current fixed-bin procedure yields an allele frequency at least 2-fold higher than that of a floating-bin.
authors.affiliation: Center for Demographic and Population Genetics, University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston 77225.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chakraborty
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Budowle
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D001769:Blood; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems; D008297:Male; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D014621:Vagina / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D004247:DNA