Correction: A New Multiplex Assay of 17 Autosomal STRs and Amelogenin for Forensic Application.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057471.].

Development and validation of a new STR 25-plex typing system.

In this study, a new STR 25-plex typing system, including 23 autosomal STRs (D1S1656, D2S1338, D2S441, D3S1358, D5S818, D6S1043, D7S820, D8S1179, D10S1248, D12S391, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, D19S433, D21S11, D22S1045, CSF1PO, FGA, Penta D, Penta E, TH01, TPOX, vWA) and a Y-STR locus of DYS391 and amelogenin, was developed. The included 24 STRs belonged to the main international DNA databases (CODIS, ISSL, ESS-extended, UCL, GCL and NCIDD) except D6S1043 (specially chosen for Chinese population). Developmental validation indicated that the STR 25-plex typing system was reproducible, accurate, sensitive and robust. The sensitivity testing of the system was such that a full profile was obtainable even with 125pg of human DNA. Specificity testing was demonstrated by the lack of cross-reactivity with a variety of commonly encountered animal species and microbial pool. For the stability testing, full profiles can been obtained with humic acid concentration≤60ng/µL and hematin<500µM. Also, this multiplex system is suitable for mixture study. All of the minor alleles were called for ratios of 1:1, 1:3 and 3:1 of the mixture with the system. In addition, the whole PCR amplification can finish within 1h, making the system suitable for fast-detection. For the forensic evaluation of the multiplex system, 23 autosomal STRs included followed the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. A total of 268 alleles were detected for the 23 autosomal STR loci among 200 individuals. Since 23 autosomal STRs were independent from each other, CMECduo was 0.99999916563607 and CMECtri was 0.99999999986525. All the forensic efficiency parameters demonstrated that this multiplex system is highly polymorphic and informative in the Han population of China.

Development of a new 26plex Y-STRs typing system for forensic application.

In this study, 26plex Y-STRs typing system, including 17 Y-STRs (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385ab, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635 and GATA H4) recommended as YHRD standard loci and nine new highly discriminating Y-STRs (DYS549, DYS643, DYS388, DYS570, DYS533, DYS576, DYS460, DYS481 and DYS449), was established with 5-dye fluorescences labelling. Developmental validation indicated that the 26plex Y-STRs typing system was reproducible, accurate, sensitive and robust. The sensitivity of the system was such that a full profile was obtainable even with 125pg of male DNA. Specificity testing was demonstrated by the lack of cross-reactivity with a variety of commonly encountered animal species and bacteria. Also, the multiplex is suitable for mixture study. An average of above 97% of the minor alleles detected with the male/male mixture with 1:3 and 3:1 ratios, while an average of above 70% of the minor alleles detected with the male/male mixture with 1:19 and 19:1 ratios. Full profiles are consistently detected with 125pg of male DNA, even in the presence of excessive amounts of female DNA. In addition, the whole PCR amplification of the 26 Y-STRs can finish in 1h, making the multiplex system suitable for fast-detection. For the forensic evaluation of the multiplex system, 516 haplotypes were found among 517 unrelated males. HD of the multiplex system was 0.9999925 while DC was 0.9980658, which is suitable for forensic application.

Development of a 24-locus multiplex system to incorporate the core loci in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and the European Standard Set (ESS).

The 24-locus multiplex system allows co-amplification and fluorescent detection of 24 loci (23 STR loci and Amelogenin), including STR loci in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and the ESS (European Standard Set) as well as five additional loci (D2S1338, D6S1043, D19S433, Penta D and Penta E) commonly used in commercial kits. It facilitates data sharing and minimizes adventitious matches within national or between international DNA databases. Additionally, the system can amplify directly from blood and buccal samples spotted on filter paper and swabs and reduce the cycling time to less than one hour and a half. Primers, internal size standard, allelic ladders and matrix standard set were designed and created in-house with a design strategy to work in this multiplex. Developmental validation experiments followed the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) and the Chinese National Standard (GA/T815-2009) guidelines. The system was evaluated by species specificity, sensitivity, stability, precision and accuracy, case-type samples, population, mixture and PCR-based studies. The results demonstrate that the 24-locus multiplex system is a robust and reliable identification assay as required for forensic DNA typing and databasing.

Development of the 16 X-STR loci typing system and genetic analysis in a Shanghai Han population from China.

This study developed a new multiplex PCR system that simultaneously amplifies 16 X-STR loci in the same PCR reaction, and the polymorphism and mutation rates of these 16 X-STR loci were explored in a Shanghai Han population from China. These loci included DXS10134, DXS10159, DXS6789, DXS6795, DXS6800, DXS6803, DXS6807, DXS6810, DXS7132, DXS7424, DXS8378, DXS9902, GATA165B12, GATA172D05, GATA31E08, and HPRTB. Samples from 591 unrelated individuals (293 males and 298 females) and 400 two-generation families were successfully analyzed using this multiplex system. Allele frequencies and mutation rates of the 16 loci were investigated, with the comparison of allele frequency distributions among different populations performed. Polymorphism information contents of these loci were all >0.6440 except the locus DXS6800 (0.4706). Nine cases of mutations were detected in the 16 loci from the investigation of 9232 meioses. Pairwise comparisons of allele frequency distributions showed significant differences for most loci among populations from different countries and ethnic groups but not among the Han population living in other areas of China. These results suggest that the 16 X-STR loci system provides highly informative polymorphic data for paternity testing and forensic identification in the Han population in Shanghai, China, as a complementary tool.

A new multiplex assay of 17 autosomal STRs and Amelogenin for forensic application.

This paper describes a newly devised autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) systems for 17 autosomal loci (D1S1656, D2S441, D3S1358, D3S3045, D6S477, D7S3048, D8S1132, D10S1435, D10S1248, D11S2368, D13S325, D14S608, D15S659, D17S1290, D18S535, D19S253 and D22-GATA198B05) and Amelogenin. Primers for the loci were designed and optimized so that all of the amplicons were distributed from 50 base pairs (bp) to less than 500 bp within a five-dye chemistry design with the fifth dye reserved for the sizing standard. Strategies were developed to overcome challenges that encountered in creating the final assay. The limits of the multiplex were tested, resulting in the successful amplification of genomic DNA range from 0.25-4 ng with 30 PCR cycles. A total of 681 individuals from the Chinese Han population were studied and forensic genetic data were present. No significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed. A total of 180 alleles were detected for the 17 autosomal STRs. The cumulative mean exclusion chance in duos (CMECD) was 0.999967, and cumulative mean exclusion chance in trios (CMECT) was 0.99999995. We conclude that the present 17plex autosomal STRs assay provides an additional powerful tool for forensic applications.