<scp>DNA</scp> Profiling Success Rates from Degraded Skeletal Remains in Guatemala

Johnston, Emma; Stephenson, Mishel

doi:10.1111/1556-4029.13087

Cited by 24 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…<17 years old), the rate of recovery of profile is up to 38.9%, which is fairly high compared to that of adults (25%). 20 Davoren et al reported that 0.25-9.58 ng/g of DNA was obtained using the QIA Quick kit method and 0.0016-4.48 ng/g using the organic extraction method from unburied unburnt human bones. 21 In another study, 0.0-147.7 ng/g of DNA was obtained using the Qiagen kit method and 0-605 ng/g using the organic extraction method from human skeletal remains.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of different methods for DNA extraction from human burnt bones and the generation of genetic profiles for identification

Uzair¹,

Rasool

Wasim³

2017

Med Sci Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bone exposure to heat in the presence of moisture breaks the phosphodiester bonds of the backbone, leaving sheared DNA in bone cells. This also limits the possibility of generating a complete profile of the victim. With the increasing incidence of fire outbreaks over the past few years, a paradigm shift to establish identity has been observed, from morphological identification of victims to STR profiling. For this study, 10 bone samples were taken from burnt human bodies that were recovered from different fire outbreak scenes. The DNA from these burnt human tissues was isolated using four different extraction methods: the organic extraction method, the total demineralisation method, the Qiagen kit method, and the Chelex extraction method. STR profiles of victims were generated on a genetic analyser using an AmpFlSTR Identifiler® Plus Kit and analysed on Gene Mapper ID-X. DNA isolated from bones using the total demineralisation extraction method and organic extraction method was of the highest quality due to the efficient removal of inhibitors. DNA obtained using these two methods successfully generated the STR profiles of the victims. The quality of isolated DNA obtained through the Qiagen kit was comparatively low, but STR profiles of the victims were successfully generated. The Chelex kit failed to extract good quality DNA of high quantity from the burnt bones, encountering inhibition in all samples at varying degrees. This study concludes that total demineralisation and the Qiagen kit are sophisticated and reliable methods to obtain a good yield of DNA from burnt human bones, which can be used for the identification of victims.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of different methods for DNA extraction from human burnt bones and the generation of genetic profiles for identification

Uzair¹,

Rasool

Wasim³

2017

Med Sci Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Additionally, advances have been made in extraction techniques and amplification kits to reduce the amount of biological material destroyed during the DNA isolation procedure. Optimizing the DNA extraction process and increased sensitivity of DNA kits has allowed laboratories to slowly decrease the amount of starting material needed for the extraction process, allowing for minimal destruction of the skeletal materials [39,40,46,48,49]. Many studies [15,29–32] have investigated the relationship between skeletal element (bone type) and DNA yield as a way to sample skeletal remains based on the likelihood of generating an informative DNA profile.…”

Section: Skeletal Dna Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA recovery and analysis from skeletal material in modern forensic contexts

Latham

Miller

2018

Forensic Sciences Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The generation of a DNA profile from skeletal remains is an important part of the identification process in both mass disaster and unidentified person cases. Since bones and teeth are often the only biological materials remaining after exposure to environmental conditions, intense heat, certain traumatic events and in cases where a significant amount of time has passed since the death of the individual, the ability to purify large quantities of informative DNA from these hard tissues would be beneficial. Since sampling the hard tissues for genetic analysis is a destructive process, it is important to understand those environmental and intrinsic factors that contribute to DNA preservation. This will serve as a brief introduction to these topics, since skeletal sampling strategies and molecular taphonomy have been discussed in depth elsewhere. Additionally advances in skeletal DNA extraction and analysis will be discussed. Currently there is great variation in the DNA isolation methods used by laboratories to purify DNA from the hard tissues; however, a standardized set of short tandem repeat (STR) loci is analyzed by many US laboratories to allow for comparisons across samples and jurisdictions. Recent advances have allowed for the generation of DNA profiles from smaller quantities of template DNA and have expanded the number of loci analyzed for greater discriminatory power and predictions regarding the geographic ancestry and phenotype of the individual. Finally, utilizing databases and expanding the number of comparison samples will be discussed in light of their role in the identification process.

show abstract

“…This provides information on the amplification efficiency of different types of decomposed biological samples considered in the study. Although teeth are preferred over soft tissues since its robust nature preserves DNA for a longer duration (Johnston and Stephenson 2016). Even after being buried in the garden soil for the duration of 10 months, no substantial difference could be seen in the profile quality of teeth samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Personal identification or establishing the identity of an individual is always a challenge for social and medico-legal purposes, especially in cases of natural mass disasters like floods, earthquakes, cases of fire deaths (Heinrich et al 2009;Dumache et al 2016), tsunamis, landslides and serious vehicular/train accidents; plane crashes (Hsu et al 1999); and skeletal remains from mass graves (Prado et al 1997;Johnston and Stephenson, 2016) or man-made disasters such as terrorist attacks; bomb blasts (Holland et al 2003); and mass murders also lead to multiple fatalities. In such situations, it is difficult to establish an identity with high accuracy of individuals many a times.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of preserved DNA in decomposed biological materials by using forensic DNA profiling

Thakar

Joshi

Shrivastava

et al. 2019

Egypt J Forensic Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: DNA profiling for the victim identification in several forensic situations is mostly challenging due to a high degree of degradation or due to a high level of intermingling of remains. There are many intrinsic and extrinsic factors involved in the postmortem decay of tissues. Forensic DNA analysts come across a variety of samples ranging from stain samples to visceral material to bone or teeth. The amount and quality of DNA recovery are highly variable/challenging in dealing such forensic evidence. Material and methods: In the present study, two different types of postmortem tissues (brain and prostate/uterus) along with teeth of 20 naturally decomposed human bodies were analysed. DNA extraction has been performed using the phenol-chloroform extraction method. Further, the extracted samples have been subjected for quantitative analysis using RT-PCR. Samples were amplified using the PowerPlex® 21(PP 21) multiplex system and were genotyped using capillary electrophoresis in 3500XL Genetic Analyzer.Results: A perfect short tandem repeat (STR) profile has been generated from all the teeth samples. In most of the cases, brain tissue samples also provided an optimal profile. In contrast, prostate tissue samples gave partial amplification at almost all the samples. These findings were further evaluated by DNA profile quality measures for the studied samples. Conclusion: The present study may provide a platform to effectively evaluate forensic samples that contain small or degraded DNA template. The multiplex autosomal STR loci PP 21 system used in the study is efficient enough for typing such degraded samples with high sensitivity and discrimination power.

show abstract

DNA Profiling Success Rates from Degraded Skeletal Remains in Guatemala

Cited by 24 publications

References 17 publications

Evaluation of different methods for DNA extraction from human burnt bones and the generation of genetic profiles for identification

Evaluation of different methods for DNA extraction from human burnt bones and the generation of genetic profiles for identification

DNA recovery and analysis from skeletal material in modern forensic contexts

An assessment of preserved DNA in decomposed biological materials by using forensic DNA profiling

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About