Efficiency of Multilocus Probes in Mother-Child-Putative Father Cases

Abstract

A multilocus probe (MLP) is characterized by the parameters m (= mean number of bands common to two non-related persons) and n (= mean number of bands per person) (Hummel and Fukshansky, this volume). Hence, one can compare the performance of, say, two probes, one with the parameters m_l and n₁, the other with m₂ and n₂. If an MLP is used in a case of disputed paternity, its exclusion chance is of practical importance. The larger it is, the better the probe as a source of negative, but also of positive evidence. We regard the bands of a MLP as phenotypes of diallelic, mutually independent systems. Each system has two alleles *A and *nonA with two phenotypes

$$ \begin{gathered} + = *\text{A*A}\;\text{or *nonA*A,} \hfill \\ - = *\text{nonA*nonA}\text{.} \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$