Polymerase chain reaction amplification products of 22 known polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) loci were subjected to denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and detected using a silver staining method. Loci that amplified efficiently and revealed the fewest amplification-related artifacts with this detection method were selected for development of allelic ladders. The combination of allelic ladders and silver stain detection provides an inexpensive and general non-isotopic analytical method for DNA identification. This approach has immediate application in forensic analysis, paternity determination, human cell line identification and monitoring of bone marrow transplants. It can also be adapted to more general applications of genetic analysis in human and other species including detection of genetic disorders and cancers.