Evaluation of the ForenSeq® Kintelligence Kit and the FORensic Capture Enrichment Panel for Unidentified and Missing Persons Casework

Targeted amplicon sequencing (TAS) employs massively parallel sequencing technology to generate profiles comprised of several thousand single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to assist in identifying an individual and generating investigative leads. By targeting a range of SNP classes, profiles are able to be analysed to infer biological sex, externally visible characteristics, biogeographical ancestry, paternal lineage and relationships to other individuals. Such leads can be beneficial for human remains identification where antemortem data is not available for comparison. This study evaluated the performance and requirements of two in-house TAS pipelines: the ForenSeq® Kintelligence Kit and the FORensic Capture Enrichment (FORCE) panel. Both TAS pipelines demonstrated suitability for a range of samples typically encountered in missing persons cases, including buccal, bone, tooth and nail samples. There was a high degree of concordance between the TAS genotypes and the majority of the genetic intelligence produced was consistent with the self-declared information provided by DNA donors. This study highlights the requirements for each pipeline to be considered by forensic laboratories seeking to establish a forensic genomics capability for unidentified and missing persons casework.