An introductory overview of open-source and commercial software options for the analysis of forensic sequencing data

Published

October 29, 2021

Author(s)

Tuende Huszar, Katherine Gettings, Peter Vallone

Abstract

The top challenges of adopting new methods to forensic DNA analysis in routine laboratories are often the capital investment and the expertise required to implement and validate such methods locally. In the case of next generation sequencing, in the last decade several specifically forensic commercial options became available, offering reliable and validated solutions. Despite this, the readily available expertise to analyze, interpret and understand such data is still perceived to be lagging behind. This review gives an introductory overview for the forensic scientists who are at the beginning of their journey with implementing next generation sequencing locally and, as most in the field, do not have bioinformatics background, and may find it difficult to navigate the new terms and the analysis options available. The currently available open-source and commercial software for forensic sequencing data analysis are summarized here to provide an accessible starting point for those fairly new to the forensic application of massively parallel sequencing.

Citation

Genes

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

MPS, NGS, STR, sequence analysis, software

Citation

Huszar, T. , Gettings, K. and Vallone, P. (2021), An introductory overview of open-source and commercial software options for the analysis of forensic sequencing data, Genes (Accessed January 26, 2026)