Automated short tandem repeat (STR) analysis in forensic casework--a strategy for the future.

Short tandem repeat (STR) loci are routinely analysed for forensic purposes in the UK. Because small regions of DNa are amplified, successful results are more likely to be obtained from highly degraded material where the DNA fragment length may be < 500 bp. The method is superceeding conventional analysis with single locus probes (SLPs). Dimeric STR loci display stutter artefacts, hence STRs used in casework are restricted to tri or tetrameric loci. Some STRs are complex repeats and have more alleles than simple repeats - for example the locus D21S11 has 21 alleles which differ in size by 2 bp because of the presence/absence of a hexanucleotide within the block of tetrameric repeats. These loci are of great potential interest because they combine increased discriminating power with reduced potential to stutter. Multiplexing 4 different loci with different dye labelled primers (i.e. carrying out polymerase chain reaction of 4 loci simultaneously) using the ABD 373A automated sequencer enables a large numbers of samples to be processed. In addition data aquisition and manipulation is automated so that minimum postelectrophoresis operator input is required. It is our aim to develop a system equivalent in power to that of 4 single locus probes. To achieve this we have developed an octoplex system consisting of 7 loci and a sex test (amelogenin locus) which has a probability of chance of association of 10(-9); the power of this system is equivalent to that achieved by 4 conventional SLPs.