PATERNITY EVALUATION IN CASES LACKING A MOTHER AND NONDETECTABLE ALLELES

In parentage testing the formulae for computing paternity index and ex clusion probability generally ignores the presence of nondetectable al leles at the loci tested. In contrast, it is now known that even when paternity testing is done with hypervariable DNA markers, nondetectabl e alleles should not be ignored. This work presents simple formulae ne eded with this consideration, to analyze paternity evaluation from DNA markers in cases where the mother of the disputed child is unavailabl e for testing. It is shown that even a modest frequency of nondetectab le alleles (e.g., 2-5% per locus) may have a substantial impact on the paternity index when the child and/or the alleged father exhibits a s ingle-banded DNA profile at a locus. Use of such formulae can generate a high probability of exclusion and a high paternity index when multi ple independently segregating hypervariable DNA markers are used.