STRBase: A short tandem repeat DNA database

DNA typing for human identity testing purposes recently has become an important area for both scientific and legal communities. The rapid growth in the field has made it difficult for forensic and paternity testing laboratories to adapt and to standardize the constantly developing DNA technologies. Scientists at NIST have developed two NIST Standard Reference Materials (SRMs 2390 and 2391) to aid the standardization process and have developed a new database to help centralize information on DNA typing, specifically in the area of short tandem repeat (STR) DNA markers. To make the STR data more readily available to the DNA typing community, more than 450 references pertaining to STRs have been gathered and compiled into an Internet accessible DNA database, which has been named STRBase. STR fact sheets are included that contain information on commonly used STR markers.

The fact sheets show observed alleles (and reported microvariants) with their repeat structure and their PCR product sizes using published primers. A list of population studies and references specific to the STR locus of interest also are included. A chromosomal index of identity testing markers is another resource in STRBase. The data include information from 750 population studies reported in the literature. For each study STRBase lists the STR system, the population examined, the number of unrelated individuals tested, and the reference. This index of population studies should be valuable for locating references that contain useful STR allele frequencies to aid in calculating matching probabilities for DNA typing cases. STRBase will be available to the general public through the World Wide Web starting this fall. This web site should serve as a valuable tool for the continued development and application of STR systems to the field of human identity testing.