Abstract
Over the past 30 years, DNA analysis has revolutionized forensic science and has become the most useful single tool in the multifaceted fight against crime. Today, DNA profiling with sets of highly polymorphic autosomal short tandem repeat markers is widely employed and accepted in the courts due to its high discriminating power and reliability. However, an artificial bloodstain purposefully created using molecular biology techniques succeeded in tricking a leading forensic DNA laboratory. The disturbing possibility that a forensic DNA profile can be faked shocked the general public and the mass media, and generated serious discussion about the credibility of DNA evidence. Herein, we present two exemplary assays based on tissue-specific methylation patterns and cell-specific mRNA expression, respectively. These two assays can be integrated into the DNA analysis pipelines without consumption of additional samples. We show that the two assays can not only distinguish between artificial and genuine samples, but also provide information on tissue origin. The two assays were tested on natural and artificial bloodstains (generated by polymerase chain reaction and whole genome amplification technique) and the results illustrated that the logical framework of forensic identification is still useful for forensic identification with the high credibility.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81222041, 81330073, and 81172908) and the National Key Technology Research & Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012BAK16B01).
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Supplementary Fig. 1 Profile of natural DNA obtained from the blood of N1 donor. Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 2182 kb)
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Supplementary Fig. 2 Profile of natural DNA obtained from the blood of N2 donor. Supplementary material 2 (TIFF 2233 kb)
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Supplementary Fig. 3 Profile of natural DNA obtained from the blood of N3 donor. Supplementary material 3 (TIFF 2007 kb)
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Supplementary Fig. 4 Profile of HhaI enzyme-digested DNA obtained from the blood of N3 donor. Supplementary material 4 (TIFF 1990 kb)
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Supplementary Fig. 5 Simple centrifugation (centrifugation at 1500 g for 10 min and discarding of the middle phase) performed at one (A), two (B), three (C), five (D), and eight times (E). Supplementary material 5 (TIFF 1888 kb)
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Supplementary Fig. 6 Profile of WGA-synthesized DNA generated from 0.5 μl whole blood of N3 donor. Supplementary material 6 (TIFF 1964 kb)
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Supplementary Fig. 7 Profile of WGA-synthesized DNA generated from 0.5 μl whole blood of N2 donor. Supplementary material 7 (TIFF 2257 kb)
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Wang, Z., Zhou, D., Zhang, S. et al. Logical Framework of Forensic Identification: Ability to Resist Fabricated DNA. Mol Biotechnol 57, 1030–1037 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-015-9893-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-015-9893-y