Powerplex® fusion (5c) 21 autosomal Short Tandem Repeat (STR) allele frequencies database and its forensic statistics for the Ugandan population

Abstract

Whereas STR allele frequencies database are used in human DNA relationship testing for accurate calculation of probability of identity, there is no published autosomal STR allele frequencies data based on the higher resolution PowerPlex® Fusion (5C) 21 autosomal STR markers applied on the black race and in this study, we focused on constructing a higher resolution PowerPlex® Fusion (5C) 21 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) allele frequencies population database and its forensic parameters for the Ugandan population. This was an Insilco analysis, where by three hundred and eighty (380) archived PowerPlex® Fusion (5C) 21 autosomal STR DNA profiles were randomly retrieved from MBN Clinical Laboratories autosomal STR DNA profile database. Published STR allele frequencies databases by Steffen et al. (2017) in African American (N=342), Caucasian (N=361) and Hispanics (N=236); Mahdi et al. (2021) in Kuwaiti (N=400); Amela et al. (2020) in Bosnia & Herzegovina (N=600), Imad et al. 2014 for Iraq (N=100) and Rajesh et al. (2020) in Indian (N=248) were used as reference STR allele frequencies database and forensic statistics. Autosomal STR allele frequencies and Forensic statistics were computed using PowerStats 2.0 (Promega, USA). PowerPlex® Fusion (5C) 21 autosomal STR markers allele frequencies database and its forensic statistics for the Ugandan population was constructed in Microsoft excel 2013. The PowerPlex® Fusion (5C) 21 autosomal STR alleles and frequencies for all the STR markers in Ugandan population were detected in similar range like those published by Steffen et al. (2017) in African American, Caucasian and Hispanics populations, with exception of minor differences. This concludes that PowerPlex® Fusion (5C) 21 autosomal STR markers can be used with confidence for safe forensic/paternity investigations in Ugandan population. PowerPlex® Fusion (5C) 21 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) allele frequencies populations database and its forensic parameters for Ugandan populations was successfully constructed and this database can be used by any forensic DNA laboratory for computation of probability of identity during forensic/paternity investigations in Ugandan/black race population. The average Forensic/paternity statistics of PowerPlex® Fusion 5C 22 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) allele frequencies population database for Ugandan population such as Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) of 0.769, Power of Discrimination (PD) of 0.925, Expected heterozygosity (He) of 0.805 and Observed heterozygosity (Hobs) of 0.805 were all high and in similar range like those previously published by Steffen et al. (2017) in African American (N=342), Caucasian (N= 361) & Hispanics (N= 236), Mahdi et al. (2021) in Kuwaiti (N=400), Amela et al. (2020) in Bosnia & Herzegovina (N=600), Imad etal. (2014) in Iraq (N=100) and Rajesh et al. (2020) in Indian (N=248) populations. This further concludes that PowerPlex® Fusion (5C) 21 autosomal STR markers can be used with confidence for safe forensic/paternity investigations in Ugandan/black race population.