Review of: Forensic DNA Typing

Abstract

Abstract The forensic potential of DNA profiling for human identification burst upon the scene in late 1985. Since then, forensic DNA testing has gone through several phases of technological and operational advance resulting in more rapid analysis, extension of testing to ever smaller biological samples, and a de facto international standardization based on use of commercial kits. We appear now to have arrived at an operational plateau centered on the typing of short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms according to standardized protocols using electrophoresis instrumentation. STR markers are used worldwide for forensic identification purposes and are the core markers in virtually all national identification databases; the U.S. national DNA database system (CODIS) is based on a consensus set of 13 STR markers.