artifact

A non-allelic product of the DNA amplification process (e.g. stutter, non-template nucleotide addition, primer-dimer, or other non-specific product), and anomaly of the detection process (e.g. single or multichannel voltage spikes, instrument noise, or pull-up), or a by-product of primer synthesis (e.g. “dye blob”) that may be observed on an electropherogram. Some artifacts may complicate the interpretation of DNA profiles when they cannot be distinguished from the actual alleles from a particular sample.