title: Shannon's equivocation for forensic Y-STR marker selection.
abstract: Short tandem repeat (STR) markers are widely and continuously used in forensic applications. However, past research has demonstrated substantial allelic association between STR markers on both autosomes and the X chromosome, leading to partially redundant information that these markers can provide. Here, we quantify the allelic association between Y-chromosomal STR markers that are part of established forensic panels, separately for three different continental groups. We further propose a sequential marker selection procedure that is based on Shannon's equivocation and that accounts for allelic association between STR markers, leading to a maximal gain in independent information. In application to three real-world data sets, we demonstrate the procedure's superior performance when compared to single-locus diversity selection strategies, resulting in the optimal marker set for a given data set in the majority of marker subsets. Noting the inferior performance of the established Y-STR marker panels in a retrospective investigation, we suggest that future forensic marker selection should be guided, besides by other technical selection criteria, by an equivocation-based approach to obtain maximally discriminatory marker sets at minimal cost.
authors: Department of Statistical Genetics and Bioinformatics, Cologne Center for Genomics, University of Cologne, Weyertal 115b, 50931 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: sabine.siegert@uni-koeln.de.
authors: Sabine
authors: S
authors: Siegert
authors: Dept. Forensic Genetics, Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 13353 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: lutz.roewer@charite.de.
authors: Lutz
authors: L
authors: Roewer
authors: Department of Statistical Genetics and Bioinformatics, Cologne Center for Genomics, University of Cologne, Weyertal 115b, 50931 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: michael.nothnagel@uni-koeln.de.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Nothnagel
mesh_terms: D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y; D053803:Forensic Genetics; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers
keywords: Allelic association; Forensic marker analysis; Linkage disequilibrium; Shannon's equivocation; Short tandem repeats