title: Increasing the confidence in half-sibship determination based upon 15 STR loci.
abstract: A half-sibship relationship is when two siblings share only one parent. It may be necessary to determine if two individuals are half-siblings in cases of immigration, inheritance, genetic counseling or the identification of human remains. In such instances a combined half-sibship index (CHSI) can be calculated. Support for this kinship is also based upon the number of shared-alleles at DNA loci. We report on the combination of the calculation of CHSI with the all-shared-alleles (ASA) to enhance the specificity of any half-sibship test. The 15 STR loci (including CODIS 13) that comprise the Identifiler loci were applied to three populations using 355,620 simulated pairs of half-siblings and 178,815 unrelated pairs. Based upon the data obtained, the sensitivity and specificity can be evaluated to determine the existence of half-sibship. This report highlights the uncertainty problems inherent in this form of indirect kinship testing and recommends a combination evaluation of CHSI and ASA.
authors.affiliation: Scientific and Technical Research Center, Ministry Justice Investigation Bureau, Taipei County 231, Taiwan, ROC. pu_macros@yahoo.com.tw
authors.forename: Chang En
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Pu
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Linacre
mesh_terms: D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000235:genetics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D035781:Siblings; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences