ABSTRACT
DNA samples yielding no more than two alleles at each locus shall be deemed DNA from one person or single source. Since, as humans, we get half of our DNA from each parent, then each location shall have at most two alleles (e.g., 15, 16). If more than two alleles are viewed at any location, then the sample must have originated from more than one person, and it represents a mixture of DNA from those people. Laboratories have developed their own ways to deal with analysis of mixtures. Some spend copious amounts of time trying to deconvolute the mixture (or determine the proles of one or more contributors to the mixture) and obtain individual prole(s) where others will deem the sample a mixture and calculate one of the statistics described below (Clayton et al. 1998). Some laboratories do not venture into interpretation of nondeducible mixtures and do nothing further if individual proles cannot be determined.
