New Off-Ladder Alleles Detected by Using the Power Plex® Fusion System during Establishment of Genetic Fingerprint Database for the Iraqi Security Forces

Abstract

      In present study, we detected thirty two off-ladder alleles during establishment of genetic fingerprint database for 354 individual from Iraqi security forces volunteers. These individuals had been typed by using the PowerPlex® Fusion System for the following 22 autosomal STRs: D3S1358, D1S1656, D2S441, D10S1248, D13S317, Penta E, D16S539, D18S51, D2S1338, CSF1PO, Penta D, TH01, vWA, D21S11, D7S820, D5S818, TPOX, D8S1179, D12S391, D19S433, FGA and D22S1045. Eight of them are located at the D12S391 locus, seven are located in Penta E, three are located in D1S1656, D2S441, D7S820 and FGA respectively, two are located in D18S51, one occurred at the D16S539 locus, Penta D locus and D8S1179 locus respectively. The results showed that 10 of 22 STR loci have non-ladder alleles, and the number of observed OL alleles was 32, with a percentage of 4.5%. Totally, we detected 16 different OL allele types from the 32 alleles, 2 located at outside the range of commercial allelic ladder, and 14 at inside this range. The OL allele data can help to increase the power of cases identification when samples are involved with those variant loci.