Mutations and/or close relatives? Six case work examples where 49 autosomal SNPs were used as supplementary markers

Six case work examples are presented, where the individuals were typed for 15 autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) and 49 autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The 15 STRs were typed with the AmpFlSTR Identifiler PCR Amplification Kit and the 49 SNPs were typed with the SNPforID multiplex assay. The six cases included two duos, two trios and two cases, where the alleged father was not available for testing and one or two of his close relatives were tested instead. The SNP investigation was more informative than the STR investigation in all six cases. In two cases, the alleged father would have been falsely included based on the STR results, while the SNP results showed that the alleged father was not the true parent. These case work examples underline the importance of performing supplementary investigations in selected cases and demonstrate the usefulness of the SNPforID multiplex assay. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.