Highlights
- •Y-STR markers contain redundant information due to allelic association.
- •Equivocation-based sequential marker selection reduces this redundancy.
- •Our approach performs superior compared to single-locus strategies.
- •Among other criteria, our approach should guide future selection of marker sets.
Abstract
Short tandem repeat (STR) markers are widely and continuously used in forensic applications.
However, past research has demonstrated substantial allelic association between STR
markers on both autosomes and the X chromosome, leading to partially redundant information
that these markers can provide. Here, we quantify the allelic association between
Y-chromosomal STR markers that are part of established forensic panels, separately
for three different continental groups. We further propose a sequential marker selection
procedure that is based on Shannon’s equivocation and that accounts for allelic association
between STR markers, leading to a maximal gain in independent information. In application
to three real-world data sets, we demonstrate the procedure’s superior performance
when compared to single-locus diversity selection strategies, resulting in the optimal
marker set for a given data set in the majority of marker subsets. Noting the inferior
performance of the established Y-STR marker panels in a retrospective investigation,
we suggest that future forensic marker selection should be guided, besides by other
technical selection criteria, by an equivocation-based approach to obtain maximally
discriminatory marker sets at minimal cost.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 09, 2015
Accepted:
February 7,
2015
Received in revised form:
January 8,
2015
Received:
November 7,
2014
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
