Update of Mexican population databases for complex kinship interpretation with twelve and seven X-STRs.

Authors

Irán Cortés-Trujillo, Mayra Elizabeth García-Aceves, Eduardo Rojas-Prado, Mauro López-Armenta, Cinthya Miroslava Guzmán-González, Guadalupe Avalos-Navarro, Gabriela Martínez-Cortés, José Alonso Aguilar-Velázquez, Mariano Guardado-Estrada, Héctor Rangel-Villalobos

Published in

Molecular biology reports. Volume 53. Issue 1. Jun 27, 2026. Epub Jun 27, 2026.

Abstract

X-chromosome short tandem repeats (X-STRs) are valuable for resolving complex kinship cases. Most population databases are based on the ArgusX12 kit (Qiagen), using PCR and capillary electrophoresis (CE) to identify length-based (LB) alleles, and are formatted for FamlinkX software. However, haplotype diversity is often underrepresented by population studies, compelling database updates ( https://famlink.se/fx_databases.html ). The ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep kit (Verogen) uses massive parallel sequencing (MPS) to analyze 7 X-STRs and report sequence-based (SB) alleles, for which population databases are currently unavailable. Because these 7 markers are a subset of the ArgusX12 panel, existing LB-based databases can support kinship interpretation of MPS-derived data.
We therefore updated a Mexican population database for 12 X-STRs and generated a corresponding 7-marker subset with FamlinkX-compatible files. Using 500 haplotypes from the Investigator Argus X-12 kit QS (Qiagen), we estimated forensic parameters and evaluated the impact of the updated database by calculating likelihood ratios (LRs) in four representative kinship scenarios. The updated database (n = 1433) increased LRs by an average of 55% compared to the previous version (n = 933).
These results support improved forensic interpretation in Mexican and Latin American populations lacking comprehensive national X-STR databases based on ArgusX12 and ForenSeq DNA Signature kits.

PMID:
42364032
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 27 Jun 2026.

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