Linkage disequilibrium matches forensic genetic records to disjoint genomic marker sets

TLDR: The method can link a dataset similar to those used in genomic studies with another dataset containing markers used for forensics, and it shows that records can be matched across genotype datasets that have no shared markers based on linkage disequilibrium between loci appearing in different datasets.

Abstract: Combining genotypes across datasets is central in facilitating advances in genetics Data aggregation efforts often face the challenge of record matching-the identification of dataset entries that represent the same individual We show that records can be matched across genotype datasets that have no shared markers based on linkage disequilibrium between loci appearing in different datasets Using two datasets for the same 872 people-one with 642,563 genome-wide SNPs and the other with 13 short tandem repeats (STRs) used in forensic applications-we find that 90-98% of forensic STR records can be connected to corresponding SNP records and vice versa Accuracy increases to 99-100% when ∼30 STRs are used Our method expands the potential of data aggregation, but it also suggests privacy risks intrinsic in maintenance of databases containing even small numbers of markers-including databases of forensic significance