Testing Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
on Allelic Data from VNTR Loci
by Seymour Geisser and Wesley Johnson
Technical Report No. 569
School of Statistics
University of Minnesota
and University fo California, Davis
December, 1992
Research supported in part by NIGMS Grant 25271.
Introduction
In a recent paper by Budowle et al. (1991) mention is made of the difficulty
in testing for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium on allelic data from VNTR loci used
in forensic comparisons. The major reason being that actual number of
discrete alleles at the locus is unknown and their measurement is imprecise
rendering them quasi-continuous. Added to inability in hte resolution of an
allele, small-sized alleles may escape detection entirely by the agarose -
submarine gel electrophoresis and Southern blotting procedures that are used.
We propose a fairly simple method of testing for the independence of the paired
allelic distribution at a locus. The assumption of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
is used by Budowle et al. and others in order to apply the product rule to
the pairs of alleles in estimating certain population proportions in a
population. This rule can only be applied when the pairs of alleles are
statistically independent. Hence a test for independence should be made to
determine the appropriateness of the assumption.