Being confined to bed can have fatal consequences. Incorrect fastening of restraints and inadequate monitoring led to the death of 19 people in care. Andrea M. Berzianovich and her colleagues, forensic medicine specialists from Munich and Vienna, investigated these fatalities in patients subjected to freedom-restraining measures.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today introduced Thermo Scientific TruNarc, a new handheld narcotics analyzer that gives local law enforcement a significant technology edge in the war on drugs.
Abstract: Y-chromosome specific STR profiling is increasingly used in forensic casework. However, the strong geographic clustering of Y haplogroups can lead to large differences in Y-STR haplotype frequencies between different ethnicities, which may have an impact on database composition in admixed populations.Aboriginal people have inhabited Australia for over 40,000 years and until ?300 years ago they lived in almost complete isolation. Since the late 18th century Australia has experienced massive immigration, mainly from Europe, although in recent times from more widespread origins. This colonisation resulted in highly asymmetrical admixture between the immigrants and the indigenes.A State jurisdiction within Australia has created an Aboriginal Y-STR database in which assignment of ethnicity was by self-declaration. This criterion means that some males who identify culturally as members of a particular ethnic group may have a Y haplogroup characteristic of another ethnic group, as a result of admixture in their paternal line. As this may be frequent in Australia, an examination of the extent of genetic admixture within the database was performed. A Y haplogroup predictor program was first used to identify Y haplotypes that could be assigned to a European haplogroup. Of the 757 males (589 unique haplotypes), 445 (58.8%) were identified as European (354 haplotypes). The 312 non-assigned males (235 haplotypes) were then typed, in a hierarchical fashion, with a Y-SNP panel that detected the major Y haplogroups, C–S, as well as the Aboriginal subgroup of C, C4. Among these 96 males were found to have non-Aboriginal haplogroups. In total, ?70% of Y chromosomes in the Aboriginal database could be classed as non-indigenous, with only 169 (129 unique haplotypes) or 22% of the total being associated with haplogroups denoting Aboriginal ancestry, C4 and K* or more correctly K(xL,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S). The relative frequencies of these indigenous haplogroups in South Australia (S.A.) were significantly different to those seen in samples from the Northern Territory and Western Australia. In S.A., K* (?60%) has a much higher frequency than C4 (?40%), and the subgroup of C4, C4(DYS390.1del), comprised only 17%. Clearly admixture in the paternal line is at high levels among males who identify themselves as Australian Aboriginals and this knowledge may have implications for the compilation and use of Y-STR databases in frequency estimates.
Abstract: Aiming to evaluate the usefulness of 38 non-coding bi-allelic autosomal indels in genetic identification and kinship testing, three Brazilian population samples were studied: two from Rio de Janeiro (including a sample of individuals with self-declared African ancestry) and one Native American population of Terena from Mato Grosso do Sul. Based on the observed allele frequencies, parameters of forensic relevance were calculated. The combined power of discrimination of the 38 indels was high in all studied groups (PD?0.9999999999997), although slightly lower in Native Americans. Genetic distance analysis showed significant differences between the allele frequencies in the Rio de Janeiro population and those previously reported for Europeans, Africans and Asians explained by its intermediate position between Europeans and Africans. As expected, the Terena sample was significantly different from all the other populations: Brazilians from Rio de Janeiro general population and with self-declared African ancestry, Europeans, Africans and East Asians. Finally, the performance of the 38-indel multiplex assay was tested in post-mortem material with positive results, supporting the use of short amplicon bi-allelic markers as an additional tool to STR analysis when DNA molecules are degraded.
Abstract: Mitochondrial control region (16024–576) sequences were generated from 106 samples from autochthonous Basques from the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. It is especially important to generate mtDNA databases from isolated populations in order to maximize the power of discrimination of this molecular marker. It also represents a useful approach to carry out a more accurate haplogroup classification. This is the first database report of complete control region sequences in an autochthonous Basque population sample. Strict selection criteria of autochthonous individuals, automation of laboratory processing and independent reviews of the raw electropherograms ensure the high quality of these sequences and their utility as reference population data of the autochthonous Basque population.
Abstract: Disaster victim identification (DVI) poses unique challenges for forensic personnel. Typical scenarios may involve many bodies or body parts to identify in remote locations with limited access to laboratory facilities and in extreme temperatures. Transportation of tissue samples to a forensic laboratory for DNA profiling can take weeks without refrigeration. As well as protecting DNA for subsequent analysis, tissue preservation methods ideally should be safe, readily available and easy to transport to the scene at relatively low cost. We examined eight tissue preservatives (salt, DMSO, ethanol, ethanol with EDTA, TENT buffer, RNAlater®, DNA Genotek Tissue Stabilising Kit and DNAgard®) and compared the quantity and quality of DNA recovered from human tissue and preservative solution stored at 35°C. Salt, DMSO, ethanol solutions, DNA Genotek and DNAgard® produced full Identifiler® genotypes up to one month from DNA extracts. In addition, DMSO, DNA Genotek and DNAgard® produced full profiles from aliquots of the liquid preservative.
Abstract: The Promega DNA IQ™ system is easily amenable to automation and has been an integral part of standard operating procedures for many forensic laboratories including those of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) since 2004. Due to some failure to extract DNA from samples that should have produced DNA using our validated automated DNA IQ™-based protocol, the competition for binding sites on the DNA IQ™ magnetic beads was more closely examined. Heme from heavily blooded samples interfered slightly with DNA binding. Increasing the concentration of Proteinase K during lysis of these samples did not enhance DNA recovery. However, diluting the sample lysate following lysis prior to DNA extraction overcame the reduction in DNA yield and preserved portions of the lysates for subsequent manual or automated extraction. Dye/chemicals from black denim lysates competed for binding sites on the DNA IQ™ beads and significantly reduced DNA recovery. Increasing the size or number of black denim cuttings during lysis had a direct adverse effect on DNA yield from various blood volumes. The dilution approach was successful on these samples and permitted the extraction of high DNA yields. Alternatively, shortening the incubation time for cell lysis to 30min instead of the usual overnight at 56°C prevented competition from black denim dye/chemicals and increased DNA yields.
We determined the allele frequencies and forensic parameters for 16 STR autosomal loci (D3S1358, TH01, D21S11, D18S51, D10S1248, D1S1656, D2S1338, D16S539, D22S1045, VWA, D8S1179, FGA, D2S441, D12S391, D19S433 and SE33). Blood samples were collected from 150 unrelated healthy El Salvadorean donors following informed consent. This sample represents to an urban resident population according to its distribution in the country: 83% mestizo (indigenous and European, mainly Spaniards), 16% white population of Spanish origin and 1% is of indigenous origin.
Abstract: Molecular DNA techniques in combination with appropriate reference population database and statistical methods are fundamental tools to forensic wildlife investigations. This is even more relevant when taxa with uncertain systematics are involved, as is the case of the genus Ovis (Bovidae), whose evolution has been influenced by multiple events of domestication. The Cypriot mouflon, Ovis orientalis ophion, a protected subspecies endemic to Cyprus, is threatened by poaching. This study deals with a case of alleged poaching that occurred in Cyprus (September, 2010). A car did not stop at a checkpoint and when finally blocked by the police, several bloodstained exhibits (n=12) were recovered. Three recently deceased mouflons were found by game wardens at the roadside. The Cyprus Veterinary Services established that these animals had been killed by gunshot. As part of the investigation, DNA testing was performed to establish if there was a link between the dead mouflons and the bloodstained exhibits. The mitochondrial Cytochrome-b gene (Cyt-b) and 12 loci of microsatellite DNA were used as markers. The Cyt-b sequences were obtained from 11 exhibits. They were the same as each other and the same as the single haplotype obtained from the three dead mouflons and all the investigated wild Cypriot mouflons (20 individuals). A database of wild mouflons (47 individuals) from which the unknown samples may have originated was generated. The probability of identity (PID) of the microsatellite panel, computed by genotyping all 47 wild mouflons (10 selected loci, PID=10?5), allowed us to assign nine exhibits to two out of the three carcasses (seven with very strong support: Likelihood Ratio, LR>3000 and Random Match Probability, RMP,
