Rupesh Kesharwani from the Baylor College of Medicine, HGSC & University of North Texas HSC, presented at the Nanopore Community Meeting Houston on “STRspy 2.0: unlocking the potential of long reads for forensic DNA profiles.” They shared that STRs are short tandem 2-7 bp repeats that account for 3% of the human genome. Individuals have different numbers of repeats. STRs are used in forensic investigations. However, there can be stutters/PCR artifacts, allele similarity/diversity issues, and sequence diversity. Nanopore sequencing has helped develop more reliable STR sequencing. ONT reads for STR amplicons help span regions of repeats. The STRspy provides a prediction threshold. STRspy v2.0 has included a database of STRs. They benchmarked with complex STRs and y chromosomes. STRspy 2.0 has also been used to analyze real-world scenarios. STRspy achieved 100% concordance and can be used with chromosome y. The software is available for use. This method can detect STRs in autosomes, one of the numbered chromosomes. This session shared how STR can be used to resolve cold cases and learn about our genome.
