Inference of Human Race Using Genetic Information

Due to the increase of floating population, the current trans-regional and cross-boundary crimes increase significantly. Human phenotype description studies covering race, age, appearance and other physiological characteristics, are of high interest in genetic association studies. With the extracted genetic information, the biologic evidence could reveal its origin and aid in criminal investigation. Among these is racial inference, which remains an important topic in forensic context. Ancestry informative markers(AIMs) are genetic sites with great different frequency between populations. It can be used to describe the genetic components of a population, to infer the ancestral origin of a DNA sample and then the possible physical characteristics of DNA donor. Of those said above, single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) is the most commonly used because of its larger number and wider distribution in genome. The panel of SNPs can be designed by calculating the genetic parameters such as Fst, In, and others of the kind. The available techniques for SNP typing include multiple single base extension SNP(SNa Pshot), SNPstream and Mass Array. Many panels of ancestry informative SNPs have been proposed in recent years. These techniques are playing important roles in practical cases and thus enhance the ability of forensic genetic technology in mining human genetic information. Here we present the development, application and the research on the inference of human race from DNA evidence, aiming to provide a reference for further studies and the application of this technology in a wide range.