Classical and Non-Classical HLA Alleles as Supplementary Markers in Indirect Kinship Parentage Testing

Abstract

A civil paternity investigation involving the parents of the deceased alleged father in order to establish a family relationship is presented. On the basis of the 23 autosomal short tandem repeat (aSTR) genotyping results, conclusive proof of paternity was not achieved, as the probability of paternity (W) was calculated to 0.99988. Additional genetic data of 17 classical and non-classical human leukocyte alleles (HLA) typing by next-generation sequencing (NGS) at a high-resolution level supported the hypothesis of grandpaternity over the hypothesis of coincidental paternal obligate allele (POA) sharing (total WaSTR&HLA = 0.9999998). The present study demonstrates the utility of 17 HLA genetic markers-typing in the solution of deficiency cases of disputed parentage.