The use of different multiplex PCRs for twin zygosity determination and its application in forensic trace analysis

STR typing becomes more and more valuable for different approaches of science. It revolutionized determining of zygosity in twin research and it is very often the only possibility for discrimination in forensic trace analysis. In this study 55 twin pairs from Denmark were genetically investigated to determine their zygosity. For analysis two multiplex PCR kits, the AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit, which comprises 15 loci plus the amelogenin gender determination and the Powerplex ES kit with eight different loci were employed. For a forensic approach every twin pair was regarded as being a forensic trace analysis, i.e. suspect or victim/biological trace and then we determined the security and precision with that a match of genetic patterns or an exclusion could be observed. Sixty percent of the twin pairs were di- and 40% monozygotic. There were no differences in zygosity determination between the two multiplex kits. The lowest number of exclusions by determining dizygosity was four loci for the Identifiler and three for Powerplex ES kit, the highest was 13 (Identifiler) and eight (Powerplex). It could be shown that the highly discriminative multiplex PCR kits gave matching probabilities of over 99.999999% (calculation based on data for unrelated individuals) even when only five or six STRs could be determined (assuming a trace analysis with some non-detectable STRs and therefore an incomplete genetic pattern). No questionable results regarding zygosity of the twin pairs were obtained even when only eight loci (using the Powerplex ES kit) were investigated. The simulated forensic results showed that matching probabilities should always be handled with care to not possibly come to wrong conclusions concerning the origin of the biological trace.