The hare and the tortoise: One small step for four SNPs, one giant leap for SNP-kind

Abstract 

A recently published study has used next-gen sequencing technology to resequence two Y chromosomes separated by 13 generations and discovered four single-base differences in ∼10Mb DNA, suggesting that the Y chromosome euchromatin accumulates around one mutation per generation. Y-SNPs therefore now offer the best resolution of Y haplotypes and promise to distinguish almost every Y chromosome. This work illustrates the promise of current sequencing technology for forensically relevant applications.

Keywords: Next-gen sequencing, Y-SNP, Y-STR, Haplotype resolution, Forensic applications