Internal validation study of a newly developed 24-plex Y-STRs genotyping system for forensic application.

Prior to implementing a new kit into application, developmental validation should be conducted to demonstrate the robustness and applicability of the kit. In this study, 24 Y-STR loci from the AGCU Y SUPP STR kit were tested including 11 loci overlapping with other commercial kits (DYS385a/b, DYS635, DYS533, DYS481, DYS549, DYS460, DYS527a/b, DYS522, and DYS444) and 13 new loci (DYS531, DYS630, DYS622, DYS552, DYS510, DYS459a/b, DYS446, DYS443, DYS587, Y-GATA-A10, DYS520, and DYS557). Developmental validation including PCR-related studies, sensitivity, stability, and species specificity studies were conducted. The performance of the kit in genotyping case-type samples was also estimated. The results indicated that the kit is robust, accurate and sensitive and is able to detect male samples without being affected by female samples or other species. Population data were obtained with this kit in Chinese Xibe group as well. Totally 139 different haplotypes were obtained from 167 male samples and demonstrated that this typing system is relatively discriminative.