The FORCE Panel: An All-in-One SNP Marker Set for Confirming Investigative Genetic Genealogy Leads and for General Forensic Applications

Abstract

The FORensic Capture Enrichment (FORCE) panel is an all-in-one SNP panel for forensic applications. This panel of 5422 markers encompasses common, forensically relevant SNPs (identity, ancestry, phenotype, X- and Y-chromosomal SNPs), a novel set of 3931 autosomal SNPs for extended kinship analysis, and no clinically relevant/disease markers. The FORCE panel was developed as a custom hybridization capture assay utilizing ~20,000 baits to target the selected SNPs. Five non-probative, previously identified World War II (WWII) cases were used to assess the kinship panel. Each case included one bone sample and associated family reference DNA samples. Additionally, seven reference quality samples, two 200-year-old bone samples, and four control DNAs were processed for kit performance and concordance assessments. SNP recovery after capture resulted in a mean of ~99% SNPs exceeding 10X coverage for reference and control samples, and 44.4% SNPs for bone samples. The WWII case results showed that the FORCE panel could predict first to fifth degree relationships with strong statistical support (likelihood ratios over 10,000 and posterior probabilities over 99.99%). To conclude, SNPs will be important for further advances in forensic DNA analysis. The FORCE panel shows promising results and demonstrates the utility of a 5000 SNP panel for forensic applications.

Helena’s Many Daughters: More Mitogenome Diversity behind the Most Common West Eurasian mtDNA Control Region Haplotype in an Extended Italian Population Sample

“…However, simulations show that hundreds of individuals are expected to share identical mitogenomes in a population, and two such individuals are typically a few hundred meioses apart, which corresponds to being “unrelated” for practical purposes [ 26 ]. Straightforward methods to identify close kinship in mtDNA population samples have been described [ 27 ], but the assessment of more distant relatedness over many generations is laborious [ 28 , 29 , 30 ] and impossible in a forensic routine setting.…”

Forensic Applications of Markers Present on the X Chromosome

“…The FORensic Capture Enrichment SNP (FORCE SNP) panel, developed by Till-mar et al (2021) [ 25 ], is a complete SNP panel applied in forensic cases. In this panel, clinically relevant markers are excluded, avoiding DNA database privacy concerns.…”

“…The versatility of this panel is confirmed by the possibility of using enrichment methods such as hybridization capture, PEC, and multiplex PCR, allowing for the analysis of degraded samples. The inclusion of X-SNPs in the panel is due to their informative value of kinship for cases of specific X-chromosome inheritance, further enhancing the panel’s analytical performance [ 25 ].…”

Fast and Accurate Kinship Estimation Using Sparse SNPs in Relatively Large Database Searches

“…A SNP hybridization capture panel used a similar approach using a limited SNP panel [8] and also explored alternative approaches to segment matching in order to evaluate kinship [9]. Forensic genetics has relied upon PCR for decades and can be used to target kinship informative SNPs for FGG.…”

“…However, as is the case with identity by state (IBS) methods, fewer SNPs can be successfully used for sensitive and specific kinship detection when they provide enough information [7]. A SNP hybridization capture panel used a similar approach using a limited SNP panel [8] and also explored alternative approaches to segment matching in order to evaluate kinship [9].…”