Inferring ethnic origin by means of an STR profile

Lowe, Alex L; Urquhart, Andrew J.; Foreman, Lindsey A.; Evett, I.W.

doi:10.1016/s0379-0738(00)00387-x

Cited by 100 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Knowing that others had already been successful with the use of such forensic microsatellites in the inference of human biogeographical ancestry [8][9][10][11] , we felt that the data of Bydlowski et al [7] might provide us with the opportunity to verify, in a much larger sample, our results described above. We here report that the genotyping of the 12 forensic microsatellite loci did not show statistically significant degrees of genetic differentiation between White, Intermediate and Black Brazilian individuals, thus corroborating and validating our previous results [4] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…These data have been used to show that forensic microsatellites can useful in population genetics and in the estimation of the probable biogeographical origin of a given DNA profile [e.g. [8][9][10][11]27] . The realization that allele frequencies of forensic microsatellites are sensitive to geographical origin have led to the common practice of having different databases for 'Caucasians', 'Blacks', 'Orientals' and 'Hispanics' in the United States and Europe [28] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Color and Genomic Ancestry in Brazilians: A Study with Forensic Microsatellites

Pimenta¹,

et al. 2006

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The population of Brazil, formed by extensive admixture between Amerindians, Europeans and Africans, is one of the most variable in the world. We have recently published a study that used ancestry-informative markers to conclude that in Brazil, at an individual level, color, as determined by physical evaluation, was a poor predictor of genomic ancestry, estimated by molecular markers. To corroborate these findings we undertook the present investigation based on data from 12 commercially available forensic microsatellites that were utilized to estimate the personal genomic origin for each of 752 individuals from the city of São Paulo, belonging to different Brazilian color categories (275 Whites, 192 Intermediates and 285 Blacks). The genotypes permitted the calculation of a personal likelihood-ratio estimator of African or European ancestry. Although the 12 marker set proved capable of discriminating between European and African individuals, we observed very significant overlaps among the three color categories of Brazilians. This was confirmed quantitatively using a Bayesian analysis of population structure that did not demonstrate significant genetic differentiation between the three color groups. These results corroborate and validate our previous conclusions using ancestry-informative markers that in Brazil at the individual level there is significant dissociation of color and genomic ancestry.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Color and Genomic Ancestry in Brazilians: A Study with Forensic Microsatellites

Pimenta¹,

et al. 2006

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“…Because of this historical practice, a haplotype map that associates racial, ethnic, and other socially constructed identities with specific ancestral haplotypes could potentially be used in legislation or lawsuits to determine which racial or ethnic identity an individual can or must use in certain circumstances. That propensity also may be found in forensic DNA profiling (Lowe et al 2001). Indigenous and colonized populations are most vulnerable to these misuses, but minority populations elsewhere (e.g., those in Europe) also could be at risk.…”

Section: Risk and Reificationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Race, Ethnicity, and Genomics: Social Classifications as Proxies of Biological Heterogeneity

Foster¹,

Sharp²

2002

Genome Res.

176

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Over the past century, genetics has experienced a tension between the view that racial and ethnic categories are biologically meaningful and the view that these social classifications have little or no biological significance. That tension continues to inform genomics and is evident in the assembly of biological collections and sequence databases that seek to approximate the genetic variation found in human populations. Although social identities can be useful and convenient proxies of some biological features, for example, in ensuring that genomic resources capture a range of genetic variants found in most human populations, the ways in which geneticists conceptualize the relationship between racial and ethnic identities and genetic variation can be problematic. Inclusion of racial and ethnic identifiers in genomic resources can create risks for all members of those identified populations and influence lay perceptions of the nature of racial and ethnic groups. Thus, the burden of showing the scientific utility of racial and ethic identities in the construction and analysis of genomic resources falls on researchers. This requires that genetic researchers pay as much attention to the social constitution of human populations as presently is paid to their genetic composition.

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“…Lowe et al [15] call the attention to the fact that "[…] as long as it is made clear that the information provided from the DNA profile is probabilistic -not a simple categorical classification -then we believe that it can provide useful strategic guidance when set into the context of the other information available to the investigator. An indication that the offender was of Caucasian origin may be of little use in an area where the majority of the inhabitants are Caucasians but may be far more valuable in a locality where they form a minority of the population."…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A few tests on inferring ethnicity were conducted for the common forensic STR package [13], from six [14,15] These studies applied very different methods, from empirical evaluations (re-calculating allelic frequencies by removing one individual at a time, and using this to estimate the percentage of correct affiliation [18]) to application of Bayesian classifiers to a simulated genotype profile database (constructed from allelic frequencies [17]), and concluded in general for correct classifications rates of around 90% for 16-18 STRs (or slightly higher when comparing pairs of very distinct populations [17]). None of these works, however, provided researchers with a tool for evaluating population assignment of an individual in their daily casework investigations.…”

Section: Population Affiliationmentioning

confidence: 99%