ERROR TOLERANT PARENT IDENTIFICATION FROM A FINITE-SET OF INDIVIDUALS

We consider using microsatellites for paternity checking and parent id entification in different population structures, and allowing for poss ible typing errors or mutations. Statistical rules derived from the Ba yesian and the sampling approaches are discussed in the case involving the choice of the true father-mother pair among a finite set of possi ble parental pairs. General situations are investigated by means of ra ndom simulations, in order to characterize the joint influences of the number and polymorphism of typed loci, the population structure and s ize, and error rates. Approximate expressions are provided that give t he efficiency of a set of:markers for identifying the parents in vario us mating schemes. The importance of a non-zero value for the typing e rror rate in the likelihood is highlighted.