Patent ID: 8883412

Claim:
A composition comprising a size standard and a nucleic acid sample, the size standard being to use in determining the size or sizes of two or more components in said nucleic acid sample, the components having one or more known possible sizes, the known possible sizes having a range of sizes defined by the largest and smallest known possible sizes, the range of sizes defined by the largest and smallest known possible sizes for those two or more components dose not overlap in size, the size standard including three or more size standard elements, wherein: a) the size of at least one of the size standard elements, is larger than the largest of the known possible sizes for the components; and b) the size of at least one of the size standard elements is smaller than the smallest of the known possible sizes for the components; and c) the size for all the size standard elements is different from any of the sizes of the known possible sizes for the components, wherein the component includes a characteristic unit, and wherein at least one of the size standard elements has a size that fits in a gap within the known possible sizes for the components and wherein the characteristic unit is used for all size or sizes of the two or more components and the same characteristic unit is used for one or more standard size elements used in determining the size or sizes of those two as more components, and wherein of the two ore more components are loci selected from the group consisting of: WVA, D16S539, D2S1338, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D19S433, THOI, FGA, D3S1358, D10S1248, D22S1045, D2S441, D11 S1656, D12S391, TPOX, D14S1434, CSFIPO, D5S818, D7S820, D13S317, and SE33.