Corrigendum to “Development of an Italian RM Y-STR haplotype database: Results of the 2013 GEFI collaborative exercise” [Forensic. Sci. Int. Genet. 15 (2015) 56–63] (S1872497314002245) (10.1016/j.fsigen.2014.10.008))

An inconsistency in the nomenclature used for the rapidly mutating (RM) Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) marker DYS449 was noted in the above paper [1] In this paper [1], the DYS449 allele nomenclature introduced by Ballantyne et al. [2] was used, instead of that described by Redd et al. [3] and subsequently adopted by the International RM Y-STR User Group [4] and in the AMPFlSTR® YFiler Plus kit [5]. To convert from the first [1,2] to the second [3–5] nomenclature, a simple correction factor needs to be applied, i.e. subtracting one from the repeat number of every DYS449 allele as described elsewhere [5]. The only consequence of this DYS449 allele nomenclature change is for comparing the RM Y-STR haplotypes newly obtained for the Italians in this study [1], with those from 111 worldwide populations obtained previously using a different nomenclature [4]. Considering the DYS449 nomenclature correction, the complete absence of full 13 loci RM Y-STR haplotype matches in this dataset was confirmed. However, when limiting the haplotype comparisons to 11 RM Y-STR loci by excluding the multi-copy markers DYF399S1 and DYF403S1, the previously reported single haplotype match between a single Italian sample from Abruzzo and a single Austrian sample from Salzburg [1] disappeared when applying the corrected DYS499 nomenclature due to an observed mismatch at DYS449. Moreover, no additional haplotype match between Italians and worldwide populations was seen when considering these 11 RM Y-STR loci after DYS449 nomenclature harmonization. The corrected Supplementary Fig. S1 graphically depicting RM Y-STR haplotype matches in the tested populations is provided here. The corrected Supplementary Tables showing the results according to the current DYS449 nomenclature [3–5] for control DNA 2800M included in the PowerPlex® Y23 kit (Promega) and for the entire Italian dataset are provided here in Table S2 and S3, respectively. No other findings and conclusions were affected by the DYS449 nomenclature correction noted here.