Selection of an Ancestry-Informative Marker (AIM) Panel of INDELs

Short Tandem Repeat (STR) loci are commonly used for forensic identification purposes. Most commercially available STR kits yield amplified fragments with lengths between 100 and 600 base pairs (bp). However, the genomic DNA of forensic samples can be highly degraded, yielding incomplete STR profiles. Small insertion/deletion polymorphisms (INDELs) in the intergenic regions of the genome, are viable options for typing degraded samples. Furthermore, when there are no suspects for comparison, ancestry-informative markers (AIMs) are useful for developing investigative leads. This project tested the hypothesis that using publicly available genome data, a panel of AIM-INDELs can be selected for the purposes of distinguishing the Caucasian, East Asian and African population groups. To test this hypothesis, the data from the 1000 Genomes Project were mined to select a panel of AIMs that can be used for the purposes of providing ancestry information as an investigative lead to law enforcement.