The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has compiled and maintained a Short Tandem Repeat DNA Internet Database since 1997, commonly referred to as STRBase; this paper describes the content of STRBase, access to it, and data acquisition.
The information in STRBase is in three sections: general, forensic, and supplemental information. Information that describes each commonly used STR marker forms the core of STRBase in a format called STR fact sheets. These fact sheets are composed of four sections: general information, PCR primers used, PCR product sizes, and additional information. The general information section describes other names commonly used for the STR locus, its chromosomal location, the sequence of the core STR repeat unit, the GenBank accession number, and the number of repeat units in the reference sequences. The second section of these fact sheets, PCR primers used, lists the sequence for published primers, or the amplification kits in which the primer set is available for commercial primers. The PCR product section provides the length and sequence of an amplicon generated by using each primer set listed in the PCR primer section. The FBI has selected 13 loci for the CODIS database, which will be used for linking serial crimes and unsolved cases with repeat offenders nationwide. A chromosomal map in STRBase shows the location of each core locus, with links to STR fact sheets, which are available for all 13 CODIS core loci. Regarding supplemental information in STRBase, just over 1,300 references that pertain to STRs and their application to forensic DNA typing have been collected from journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and other sources. The short tandem repeat DNA database is available throughout the world at http://www.cstl.nist.gov/biotech/strbase/. The information contained in STRBase is taken from published works on short tandem repeats used for DNA typing purposes. The literature is regularly searched for new publications, and updates are periodically made. 3 figures and 5 references