An expanded, nearly universa, panel of SNPs for indvidual identification

We have completed the development of a panel of SNPs for individual identification (IISNP) and we are optimizing a SNP panel for ancestry informativeness (AISNP) employing our resource of 44 population samples representing the major continents of the world. After testing over 500 potential candidate SNPs we have completed a final, universal panel of 92 best IISNPs based on data on 44 population samples. The list of 92 IISNPs is available at the Kidd Laboratory website (http://info.med.yale.edu/genetics/kkidd/92snpJan2009.pdf); it includes dbSNP rs-numbers and chromosome locations. All 92 IISNPs have an average heterozygosity >0.4 and the Fst values are all <0.06 on our 44 populations making these a universally applicable panel irrespective of ethnicity or ancestry. A subset of 45 unlinked SNPs constitutes an excellent panel for individual identification providing match probabilities comparable to the 13 CODIS STR markers (match probabilities of less than 10-17 in most of the world); their unlinked status also makes them useful for situations involving close biological relationships. Chance level linkage disequilibrium (LD) values are observed for all unique pairings of 86 of the 92 IISNPs (median LD=0.011) in each of 44 populations. The remaining 6 IISNPs show strong LD in most of the 44 populations for a small subset (7) of the unique pairings in which they occur due to close linkage; these 6 SNPs can therefore only be alternative candidates for inclusion in an IISNP panel of 86 SNPs independent at the population level.