A NARRATIVE FROM THE FIELD
BY GARY PATRONE, ARCPOINT LABS OF TEMPE M
ost people are familiar with DNA testing from crime scene TV shows, televised criminal trials, or ancestry
commercials. What you may not know, however, is that there are many different types of DNA tests. Depending on the relationship of the parties and the outcome being sought, there are a variety of approaches. For example, siblingship testing is different than paternity testing, and infidelity DNA testing is unlike either of them. The story of Charlotte, perhaps, is the best way to understand today’s DNA testing.
Learning from Charlotte Charlote was just a newborn when her father was tragically killed in a car crash. Following the funeral and aſter the dust setled, Charlote’s mother applied for social security benefits for Charlote, but her request was denied. It seems that in the fog of recent events, a father’s name was never added to Charlote’s birth certificate and the Social Security Administration (SSA) required proof that Charlote was the biological daughter of the deceased. Charlote’s mother searched for labs capable of performing a paternity test and became discouraged when lab aſter lab offered litle hope that test results would be meaningful enough to be accepted by the SSA. You see, the problem was Charlote’s father was cremated and no remains were available to test. When I answered the phone and heard
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Charlote’s mother’s voice, I knew she was thoroughly discouraged. Because DNA testing is currently the
most advanced and accurate technology to determine parentage, a father—or alleged father, in this case—would need to be tested along with Charlotte to determine the probability of biological paternity. In a DNA parentage test, the result stated in “probability of parentage” can vary from 99.9 to 99.9999 percent when the alleged parent is biologically related to the child, and is 0 percent when the alleged parent is not biologically related to the child. The percentage will never be 100 percent, as that would require every male on the planet to be tested in the case. Laboratories routinely test 16 or more
genetic markers that are known for being highly differential between individuals. A DNA paternity test compares the sizes of these markers between an alleged father [AF] and a child [C]. Each DNA marker contains two alleles, one inherited from the biological mother and the other from the biological father. Te DNA test determines whether there is at least one match out of the two alleles on the same marker from the alleged parent’s and child’s DNA. Table 1 shows results of a paternity test where only the child “Tommy” and alleged father “Mark” were tested. Te numbers in blue indicate alleles that Tommy inherited from the alleged father.
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