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Forensic species identification based on size variation of mitochondrial DNA hypervariable regions

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Abstract

In this study, two new systems for species identification were developed based on size variation of mitochondrial DNA hypervariable regions among animals: one was a conventional method using non-fluorescent primer sets and agarose gel electrophoresis and the other was an automatic method using fluorescent primer sets and capillary electrophoresis. DNA samples from 18 mammal, four birds, and 19 fish species were amplified using three primer sets specific for mammals, birds, and fishes, respectively. The differences in the sizes of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products, ranging from about 350 to 900 bp, permitted us to identify species. These systems were successfully applied to various specimens from several criminal cases. In unknown samples, which were different in size from reference DNA markers, sequencing of the PCR products and subsequent BLAST analysis helped to identify species. Furthermore, the sequence data provided us with information on individuals. Because these species identification methods are very simple, easy, rapid, and exact, they are useful in the field of forensic science.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Dr. Kazuhiko Imaizumi, National Research Institute of Police Science and volunteers for providing us with samples from dogs, cats, pigs, and cows. This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (16590539) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Criminal Investigation Laboratory, Shimane Prefectural Police Headquarters, Matsue, 690-8501, Japan

    Hiroaki Nakamura, Tomonori Muro & Shinji Imamura

  2. Department of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, 693-8501, Japan

    Tomonori Muro & Shinji Imamura

  3. Division of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago, 683-8503, Japan

    Isao Yuasa

Authors
  1. Hiroaki Nakamura
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  2. Tomonori Muro
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  3. Shinji Imamura
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  4. Isao Yuasa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isao Yuasa.

Electronic supplementary materials

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Supplementary Table S1

List of animals investigated in this study and the product size ± threshold value used for automated species calling (DOC 35.5 KB)

Supplementary Table S2

Nucleotide sequences of priming position and the size of product estimated from the sequences of animal D-loops (DOC 36.5 KB)

Supplementary Table S3

Haplotypes and sequences of mtDNA-HV in 82 dogs (XLS 25.5 KB)

Supplementary Table S4

Haplotypes and sequences of mtDNA-HV in 37 cats (XLS 36.5 KB)

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Nakamura, H., Muro, T., Imamura, S. et al. Forensic species identification based on size variation of mitochondrial DNA hypervariable regions. Int J Legal Med 123, 177–184 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-008-0306-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-008-0306-7

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