PATERN

PATERN calculates paternity probabilities from multilocus DNA profiles of mother-child-putative father trios for forensic and legal relationship testing.

Key Features:

• Multilocus DNA fingerprint analysis: Uses a novel statistical approach to analyze multilocus DNA fingerprints from trios to compute paternity probabilities.
• Robustness to model deviations: Accounts for deviations such as partial homozygosity, allelism, and linkage at DNA loci to maintain reliability.
• Simulation-based performance assessment: Employs extensive simulations to evaluate effects of genetic phenomena and variations in band-sharing probability estimates on paternity calculations.
• Decision-relevant probability stability: Produces paternity probabilities that remain stable despite genetic complexities to a degree that would not alter decision-making outcomes.

Scientific Applications:

• Forensic genetics: Calculation of paternity probabilities for casework using multilocus DNA profiles in forensic investigations.
• Legal paternity testing: Support of legal determinations of biological parentage in court or administrative contexts.
• Research on complex genetic data: Evaluation of how partial homozygosity, allelism, linkage, and band-sharing variability affect relationship inference and probability estimates.

Methodology:

Applies a novel statistical approach to multilocus DNA fingerprints and uses simulation-based analyses to assess impacts of partial homozygosity, allelism, linkage at DNA loci, and variations in band-sharing probability estimates on paternity probability calculations.