Routine forensic use of the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA gene for species identification.

Publication/Presentation Date

11-1-2007

Abstract

Since July 2004, Mitotyping Technologies has been amplifying and sequencing a approximately 150 base pair fragment of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that codes for 12S ribosomal RNA, to identify the species origin of nonhuman casework samples. The approximately 100 base pair sequence product is searched at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST and the species match is reported. The use of this assay has halved the number of samples for which no mtDNA results are obtained and is especially useful on hairs and degraded samples. The availability of species determination may aid forensic investigators in opening or closing off lines of inquiry where a highly probative but challenging sample has been collected.

Volume

52

Issue

6

First Page

1305

Last Page

1307

ISSN

0022-1198

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

PubMedID

17868265

Department(s)

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Document Type

Article

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