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Evaluation of Nuclear DNA from Rootless Hairs for Forensic Purposes

The study aims to overcome current limitations in the recovery of DNA from small, difficult forensic samples. Particularly, our goal is to produce a robust laboratory protocol and the accompanying software to accelerate adoption, as well as to evaluate the reliability and robustness of both the laboratory and computational aspects of generating genotype files from minute and/or degraded DNA samples, such as single, rootless hairs.

The data accompanying this study includes raw, paired-end reads from high-throughput sequencing of two panels of saliva, head hair, and pubic hair samples collected from anonymous volunteers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The smaller set (Hair1.0) comprises 8 individuals, while the larger (Hair2.0) comprises 50 individuals, with 3 overlapping individuals between the two panels identified in post-collection analysis. We did not collect phenotype data or personally identifying information from the participants. For the Hair2.0 panel, only a subset of volunteers provided pubic hairs for DNA extraction and sequencing. Also included are saliva-derived genotype array data for all 8 individuals in the Hair1.0 panel and 44 of 50 individuals in the Hair2.0 panel.