Assessing false paternity risk in simulated motherless cases from more than 20 000 real exclusion trios

Abstract

Background: When the motherʼs DNA profile is not available for paternity testing, there is a smaller probability that a locus will exclude an alleged father. This study aims to evaluate the risk of potential false paternity inclusions in motherless cases. Study Design and Methods: More than 20 000 duos were generated by removing the maternal genotypes from exclusion trios. After recalculating paternity in these duos, any found inclusions would be false. Results: The use of an appropriate number of loci, mutation model, and mutation rates to analyze motherless paternity cases was robust against false inclusions. A single potential false inclusion was observed in a case wherein kinship plays a role. This result highlights the importance of testing the mother when available and of obtaining information on family circumstances for the proper handling of cases involving related individuals. Conclusion: The guidelines we used here were sufficient to avoid false inclusions in a data set of more than 20 000 motherless cases.

Utilizing Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) of Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Gene Polymorphism to Assess Relatedness in Deficiency Parentage Testing

“…Also, while in the two triplet cases, one discrepancy was shown between the AF and the child in question, this discrepancy was eliminated when the DNA profile of the mother was missing from the analysis, which was an event observed in other studies [38]. Our results led to the conclusion that when simulating the duo from trio families, the mother's genetic profile can hide additional mismatches, providing enough certainty to include the putative father [39]. Additionally, we emphasize the necessity for greater caution when dealing with motherless cases, especially in cases where mutation events occur.…”