Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the domestic dogs in Turkey

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to prove that analyzing the hypervariable I (HV-I) and HV-II regions of mitochondrial DNA using 150 blood samples from Canis lupus familiaris would be an important source of evidence in solving an incident. Materials and Methods: The target region was amplified in the first and second polymerase chain reaction step following DNA isolation and the purification process was performed. As for the sequence analysis, it was analyzed in the ABI3130 capillary electrophoresis device. The analysis of raw data was performed. The results obtained were compared with the reference sequence. 16,658 (13.71%), and 16,676 (4.03%) of the region HV-II were identified for the first time. Conclusions: This study is a first of its kind in the field of forensic science in Turkey; however, the run time and cost were reduced via optimization in a different way as compared to the methods used in international publications.