Application Progress of Massively Parallel Sequencing Technology in STR Genetic Marker Detection

Abstract

In recent years, more and more forensic genetics laboratories have begun to apply massively parallel sequencing （MPS） technology, that is, next-generation sequencing （NGS） technology, to detect common forensic genetic markers, including short tandem repeat （STR）, single nucleotide polymorphism （SNP）, the control region or whole genome of mitochondrial DNA （mtDNA）, as well as messenger RNA （mRNA）, etc., for forensic practice, such as individual identification, kinship analysis, ancestry inference and body fluid identification. As the most widely used genetic marker in forensic genetics, STR is currently mainly detected by capillary electrophoresis （CE） platform. Compared with CE platform, MPS technology has the advantages of simultaneous detection of a large number of genetic markers, massively parallel detection of samples, the polymorphism of sequence detected by NGS makes STR have the advantages of higher resolution and system efficiency. However, MPS technology is expensive, there is no uniform standard so far, and there are problems such as how to integrate MPS-STR data with the existing CE-STR database. This review summarizes the current status of the application of MPS technology in the detection of STR genetic markers in forensic genetics, puts forward the main problems that need to be solved urgently, and prospects the application prospect of this technology in forensic genetics.

Keywords

• forensic genetics
• massively parallel sequencing
• short tandem repeat （str）
• review