title: The risk of false inclusion of a relative in parentage testing - an in silico population study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the potential of false inclusion of a close genetic relative in paternity testing by using computer generated families.
  
  
  METHODS
  10000 computer-simulated families over three generations were generated based on genotypes using 15 short tandem repeat loci. These data were used in assessing the probability of inclusion or exclusion of paternity when the father is actually a sibling, grandparent, uncle, half sibling, cousin, or a random male. Further, we considered a duo case where the mother's DNA type was not available and a trio case including the mother's profile.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The data showed that the duo scenario had the highest and lowest false inclusion rates when considering a sibling (19.03 ± 0.77%) and a cousin (0.51 ± 0.14%) as the father, respectively; and the rate when considering a random male was much lower (0.04 ± 0.04%). The situation altered slightly with a trio case where the highest rate (0.56 ± 0.15%) occurred when a paternal uncle was considered as the father, and the lowest rate (0.03 ± 0.03%) occurred when a cousin was considered as the father. We also report on the distribution of the numbers for non-conformity (non-matching loci) where the father is a close genetic relative.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results highlight the risk of false inclusion in parentage testing. These data provide a valuable reference when incorporating either a mutation in the father's DNA type or if a close relative is included as being the father; particularly when there are varying numbers of non-matching loci.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Science, Central Police University, 56 Shu-Jen Road, Kwei-San, Taoyuan 33304, Taiwan ROC.
authors.forename: James Chun-I
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Li-Chin
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Pao-Ching
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Yen-Yang
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chun-Yen
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Tsun-Ying
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yu-Jen
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Linacre
authors.forename: Hsing-Mei
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D005190:Family; D005220:Fathers; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D005819:Genetic Markers; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D010290:Parents; D010334:Paternity; D011336:Probability
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers