Power of exclusion revisited: probability of excluding relatives of the true father from paternity.
In parentage testing using DNA markers, the formulae for calculating the probability of exclusion generally overstate the power of a test battery by considering its ability to exclude a random man. It is known that in many cases, in particular immigration applications, the false father is more likely to be a relative, e.g. brother, of the true father than an unrelated man. This work presents formulae that take this consideration into account. A practical example using Hong Kong data is provided to illustrate the effect of the modification. Also discussed is how the expected efficacy of a test battery will be affected when possible mutations and null alleles or genetic inconsistencies are taken into consideration.
Fung
Wing K
WK
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, The University of Hong Kong, China. wingfung@hku.hk
Chung
Yuk-ka
YK
Wong
Dart-man
DM
D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010334:Paternity; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011336:Probability; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences
D005819:Genetic Markers