Analysis of short tandem repeat loci for forensic use in Namibia
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Date
2020
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
In the genetics section of the forensics laboratory, in Windhoek, Namibia, forensic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) typing has become an integral part of establishing familial relations as well as providing weight to evidence during criminal investigations. Currently, there is limited existing knowledge regarding the ethnic and racial genetic diversity of the Namibian population. In the present study, biological samples from 150 individuals from three racial groupings selected for the paper were used to generate a reference DNA database. The data was analysed at 21 short tandem repeat (STR) loci to observe the genetic variation between individuals of different racial groupings. In order to obtain the STR profiles, the Globalfiler Express kit from Life Technologies was used. The extracted samples were amplified and detected by the Genetic Analyser 3500 as STR profiles, with its recommended allelic ladder. Allele frequencies from the STR profiles were used to evaluate the forensic efficiency parameters such as the power of discrimination (PD), power of exclusion (PE) and the expected heterozygosity (He). Locus point SE33 exhibited the highest polymorphism and was the most informative during the study, whereas TPOX and D13S317 were the least informative. The findings
in this study would be useful in assisting the Namibian legal system as well as other
relevant bodies in human identification. The findings provided a method for characterizing the genetic structure of the Namibian population and suggested valuable information required to generate a standard online reference DNA database, thus motivate population studies on the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA which could be useful in human identification of complex cases.
Description
A mini thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science (Industrial Biochemistry)
Keywords
Forensics, Human identification, Loci, Globalfiler