Analysis of Rapidly Mutating Y Chromosome Short Tandem Repeats (RM Y-STRs)

Rapidly mutating (RM) Y-STRs were recently identified and can help to differentiate between paternally related males in paternity and forensic casework. Normal Y-STRs are often used in casework due to their paternal inheritance, which can help to resolve kinship cases, and identify male components in male/female mixtures; however, more discriminating profiles are obtained if rapidly mutating Y-STRs are used. Previously two or three multiplex PCRs have been used to amplify 13 RM Y-STRs; here, an assay amplifying these 13 markers in a single multiplex PCR is described. Commercially available male control DNA samples have been genotyped during the validation of this assay, thus providing a tool for calibrating genotyping results. It is expected that the assay will provide a niche tool for genotyping casework samples.