The effects of inbreeding on DNA profile frequency estimates using PCR-based loci

Estimates of inbreeding were determined using Wright's F_ST for loci used for PCR-based forensic analyses. The populations analyzed were African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, and Orientals. In most cases the F_ST values at each locus were less than 0.01. The F_ST values over all loci for African Americans, Caucasians, and Orientals ranged from 0.0015 to 0.0048. No substantial differences were observed for DNA profile frequency estimates when calculated under the assumption of independence or with the incorporation of F_ST.Editor's commentsThe author provides an empirical study to accompany the papers by Balding and Nichols and Brookfield in this volume. As may have been expected, F_ST values for large heterogeneous populations such as Caucasian or African American are very small.