Sequenced-based French population data from 169 unrelated individuals with Verogen's ForenSeq DNA signature prep kit

Abstract

Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) applied to forensic genetics allows the simultaneous analysis of hundreds of genetic markers and the access to full amplicon sequences which help to increase available allele diversity. Meanwhile, sequence variation within the repeat regions represents the majority of the allele diversity, flanking regions adjacent to the repeat core provide an additional degree of variation. The forensic genetics community needs access to population data, from relevant parts of the world that contain this new sequence diversity in order to perform statistical calculations. In this study, we report sequence-based Short Tandem Repeat (STR) and identity Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (iSNPs) allele data for 169 French individuals across 58 STRs and 92 SNPs included in the Verogen ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep kit. 42 STRs out of 58 showed an increased number of alleles due to sequence variation in the repeat motif and/or the flanking regions. D9S1122 showed the largest overall gain with an increase of observed heterozygosities of almost 25 %. The combined match probability combining 27 autosomal STRs and 91 identity SNPs was 1.11E-69. Sequence-based allele frequencies included in this publication will help forensic laboratories to increase the power of discrimination for identification, kinship analysis and mixture interpretation.

Keywords: Autosomal STRs; Combined random match probability; ForenSeq DNA; France; Identity SNPs; Kinship analysis; Massively parallel sequencing; Population data; Signature prep kit; Verogen.