Search, Align and Haplogroup – improved forensic mtDNA analysis via EMPOP

Dür,A.; Huber,N.; Parson,W.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) databases continue to grow and simultaneously the value of information that can be derived from an mtDNA profile is increased by different population and dispersal studies of humankind. However, especially for forensic purposes, quality must become more important than quantity. Clerical errors, inconsistent nomenclature or an insufficient sequence length (not covering the complete control region) are observed most frequently in submitted datasets, illustrating the absolute need of analytical software tools to maintain standards that are required for forensic databases