An Autosomal STR Profile of Napoléon the First

Abstract

Objective: We report the results of nuclear DNA analyses of Napoléon the First (Napoléon Bonaparte; 1769-1821). Design: His genomic DNA was extracted from dandruff adherent to his hair, coming from a lock of his hair dating from the year of 1811. Results: We obtained the complete STR (short tandem repeats) profile of Napoléon, based on fifteen autosomal loci. On this profile, ten loci (D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, D3S1358, TH01, D16S539, D2S1338, vWa, D18S51 and FGA) are heterozygous; the most frequent alleles in Caucasians are present for only seven (allele 8 for TPOX and allele 11 for D5S818, allele 13 for D8S1179, allele 10 for D7S820, allele 9.3 for THO1, allele 12 for D16S539 and allele 24 for FGA) of the homozygous and heterozygous loci. Conclusions: So the discriminating power of this sort of genetic profile is elevated, permitting useful comparisons to other STR profiles in the future. Finally, an analysis of fifteen Y chromosomal STRs from the dandruff of this lock of hair confirms allele values of Napoléon already obtained or deduced for the corresponding loci in previous determinations.

The DNA Y-STRs Profile of Louis XVI (1754-1793)

“…It is possible to extract genomic DNA from hairs with bulbs (5, 10). On cut hairs, it is relatively easy to obtain mitochondrial-DNA (mt-DNA) only (11) ; but it is possible to obtain some large amounts of genomic DNA from dandruffs joined to hairs (12).…”

The Y-Chromosome STRs Profile of Louis XVII (1785-1795?)

“…Contrary to skin-cells, dandruffs are multi-nucleated cells that contain appreciable amounts of nuclear and cytoplasmic DNA (Lucotte and Bouin Wilkinson, 2014). It is the reason why we have extracted genomic DNA from the whole blond hair number 3.…”

New Advances Reconstructing the Y Chromosome Haplotype of Napoleon the First Based on Three of his Living Descendants

“…Subsequently (Lucotte and Bouin-Wilkinson, 2014), based on genomic DNA of his hair dandruff dating from 1811, we determined allelic values for 16 STRs: DYS19 (for which we confirmed the first allelic value previously obtained), the palindromic STRs DYS385.a and .b, DYS389.i and ii, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS438, the variable STR-Y-GATA-A4, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, Y-GATA-C4 and Y-GATA-H4. The corresponding allele values for these 18 STRs correspond to the real allelic values of the Napoléon I Y-haplotype.…”

“…a, and unknown for the moment for DYS712. We already know (Lucotte & Bouin-Wilkinson, 2014) the real allele value = 23 of Y-GATA-C4 for Napoléon I. Figure 2 shows the bimodal distribution of Y-GATA-C4 alleles in the population; Napoléon I (N) value corresponds to that of the second modal class.…”

“…We have obtained now (Lucotte & Bouin Wilkinson, 2014) sixteen supplementary allelic direct determinations (on a lock of hair dandruff dating from 1811) for Napoléon I STRs, in order; DYS 19 = 13; palindromic DYS385.a and b. = 16; DYS389.i = 14, .ii = 31; DYS390 = 24; DYS391 = 10; DYS392 = 11; DYS393 = 14; DYS438 = 10; DYS439 = Y-GATA-A4 = 12; DYS448 = 20; DYS456 = 15; DYS458 = 16; Y-GATA-C4 = 23 and Y-GATA-H4 = 11.…”