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DNA 'Infallibility' Questioned

A Los Angeles Times article suggests that the odds of unrelated persons sharing similar DNA profiles may be considerably higher than previously believed:

State crime lab analyst Kathryn Troyer was running tests on Arizona's DNA database when she stumbled across two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles.

The men matched at nine of the 13 locations on chromosomes, or loci, commonly used to distinguish people.

The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. But the mug shots of the two felons suggested that they were not related: One was black, the other white.

In the years after her 2001 discovery, Troyer found dozens of similar matches -- each seeming to defy impossible odds.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Full post as published by Wise Law Blog on July 20, 2008 (boomark / email).