Identification of bodies from the scene of a mass disaster using DNA amplification of short tandem repeat (STR) loci

Validation of Highly Polymorphic Fluorescent Multiplex Short Tandem Repeat Systems Using Two Generations of DNA Sequencers

“…As a bative casework specimens and was followed with a close monitoring of initial casework (over 300 exhibits). Our results document complement to previous reports documenting the suitability (quanthe robustness of these multiplex STR profiling systems which, tity and quality) of DNA extracted from specimens under extreme when combined with other multiplex systems, could provide a environmental conditions for RFLP profiling (31)(32)(33)(34) AmpFLP/STR profiling (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)16,(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), this paper further examined adverse conditions relevant to fluorescence-based amplifica-KEYWORDS: forensic science, short tandem repeat, validation, tion including 1) the presence of potential amplification inhibitors multiplex, fluorescence, polymerase chain reaction, sequencer from substrates, 2) the level of DNA degradation induced by environmental insults, and 3) the role artificial whitening agents present in a variety of detergents may have in interfering with the detection Individual identification through genetic analysis is a key eleof fluorescently labeled DNA fragments. Experiments incorporatment in the investigation of crimes (1)(2)(3), the resolution of disputed ing a large number of primate and nonprimate individuals were paternity cases (4,5), the re-association of fragmented human also performed to investigate the specificity of the two multiplex remains following fatal accidents (airplane crash, gas explosion, systems.…”

Reconstruction of a historical genealogy by means of STR analysis and Y-haplotyping of ancient DNA

“…Genetic typing by analysis of PCR-amplifiable short tandem repeat (STR) loci is the most promising approach for forensic DNA profiling and has become the method of choice for the identification of human remains [2][3][4][5] and reconstruction of kinship. [6][7][8] The comparatively short length of the STR loci (up to 250 bp) makes them especially suitable for typing ancient DNA (aDNA), characteristically highly degraded.…”

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH)--implications for human genetic identification.

“…STR markers can be also used to detect a change in length of a microsatellite allele resulting from either insertion or deletion of repeat units during DNA replication and failure of the DNA mismatch repair system to correct these errors referred to as microsatellite instability (MSI) [10,11]. Involvement of certain genome regions in cancerogenesis may result in LOH/MSI genotype at a locus of interest displaying allelic drop-out and/or multiple allele peaks [12,13]. Contrary to quasimonomorphic mononucleotide repeat markers, polymorphic tetranucleotide repeat markers used in our study are reported to be less sensitive and specific to MSI alterations in tumor samples with mismatch repair defects [14,15].…”