X-InDels efficacy evaluation in a critical samples paternity case: A Spanish Civil War case from the memorial of the camposines (Tarragona, Spain)

Abstract

The Memorial of the Camposines (la Fatarella, Tarragona, Spain) consists in a place that honours all combatants of the Spanish Civil War (1936)(1937)(1938)(1939), without distinction of sides. The site was included in the research carried out by the multidisciplinary team coordinated by the program of the General Directorate of Democratic Memory, Generalitat of Catalonia, Spain, for the identification of the victims of the Spanish Civil War. The case investigated on the present study consisted on a presumable paternity. To accomplish the study of the presumptive father critical samples, one of the combatants found on the Memorial, two bone samples were selected -a petrous portion of left temporal bone, and a condyle of foramen magnum, both fractured and at a very bad stage of conservation. After a specific DNA extraction for critical bone sample, the next step was an autosomal and Ychromosome analysis, trying to find a possible coincidence with any possible familiar, from the familial database. A potential match was found, indicating a possible living daughter. However, between both autosomal profiles one Mendelian incompatibility was detected, and also several allelic dropout phenomena in the presumptive father's profile. Therefore, samples were analysed for a 32 X-chromosome Insertion-Deletion (InDel) polymorphisms battery, assessing their ability to solve, or at least complementing autosomal information, in a complex paternity case.It was possible to confirm the efficacy of these 32 X-InDels polymorphisms, by solving undoubtedly the case. Due to the five incompatibilities detected between both X-InDels profiles, it was now possible to discard immediately a possible paternity case.

Relevance of Genetic Identification and Kinship Analysis in Human and Natural Catastrophes—A Review

“…Despite not being one of the most used tools in forensic genetics, the X chromosome can be crucial in all cases where autosomal markers have neither exclusion nor discrimination power (Pinto et al 2010(Pinto et al , 2011. In case it is not possible to distinguish genealogies due to the same sharing values of identical alleles by descent, such as grandparents-grandchildren versus avuncular-nephews, the X chromosome markers, due to their particular form of transmission, are different in men and women and therefore allow the distinction of this type of genealogy (Gomes et al 2012(Gomes et al , 2019b(Gomes et al , 2020Pinto et al 2012;Gomes 2020;Gomes and Arroyo-Pardo 2022). This type of problem can occur in cases of catastrophes where different relatives of the same family are involved in a catastrophic situation and genetic identification is the only feasible tool for identifying, for example, cadaveric remains.…”

Difficulties in Kinship Analysis for Victims’ Identification in Armed Conflicts

“…Gomes et al 2020), allowing to solve certain kinship questions, inaccessible with autosomal markers (C. Gomes et al 2012I. Gomes et al 2020), as it was described by C. Gomes et al (2019b) in a complex case from the Spanish Civil War. In this case, X-InDels were essential to discard the paternity hypothesis, between a presumed father and daughter.…”

“…Another advantage of the analysis of markers located on the X-chromosome, mainly X-InDels (C. Gomes et al 2019b) and X-SNPs, is the fact that it permits obtaining probabilistic values that allow for excluding or accepting certain biological relationships (C. Gomes et al 2019b) when the analysis of autosomal markers proves to be insufficient (Pinto et al 2010).…”

“…It does not allow the identification in its strict sense, it has a null power of discrimination, since any member of this family through the mother's side shares this genetic information. Still, associated with other information (anthropological and historical, among others) it allows for determining a unique profile of the individual, leading to a later identification (C. Gomes et al 2019aGomes et al , 2019bPalomo-Díez et al 2019;Palomo-Díez and López-Parra 2022). The problem arises if brothers, siblings, or other kinship by the maternal side, must be identified using this type of genetic information.…”

Estado actual de la identificación de restos humanos de víctimas de la Guerra Civil Española y de la posguerra en Cataluña

“…En ambos enfoques se han analizado tanto STRs autosómicos como STRs de cromosoma Y, mientras que en casos particulares se han empleado X-InDels (Gomes et al 2019) y polimorfismos de ADN mitocondrial (ADNmt). A partir del mes de agosto de 2020, y en consonancia con la nueva licitación (EXP.…”