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Preliminary study on genetic factors related to Demirjian’s tooth age estimation method based on genome-wide association analysis

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Abstract

The age determination of individuals, especially minors, is critical in forensic research. In forensic practice, dental age estimation is one of the most commonly used methods for determining age as teeth are easy to preserve and relatively resistant to environmental factors. Tooth development is affected and regulated by genetic factors; however, these are not incorporated into current commonly used tooth age inference methods, leading to unreliable results. Here, we established a Demirjian and a Cameriere tooth age estimation-based methods suitable for use in children in southern China. By using the difference between the inferred age and the actual age (MD) as the phenotype, we identified 65 and 49 SNPs related to tooth age estimation from 743,722 loci among 171 children in southern China through a genome-wide association analysis (p<0.0001). We also conducted a genome-wide association study on dental development stage (DD) using the Demirjian tooth age estimation method and screened two sets of SNP sites (52 and 26) based on whether age difference was considered. The gene function enrichment analysis of these SNPs found that they were related to bone development and mineralization. Although SNP sites screened based on MD seem to improve the accuracy of tooth age estimation, there is little correlation between these SNPs and an individual’s Demirjian morphological stage. In conclusion, we found that individual genotypes can affect tooth age estimation, and based on different phenotypic analysis models, we have identified some novel SNP sites related to tooth age inference and Demirjian’s tooth development stage. These studies provide a reference for subsequent phenotypic selection based on tooth age inference analysis, and the results could possibly be used in the future to make forensic age estimation more accurate.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the entire experimenters and volunteers who participated in this work, as well as the National Natural Science Foundation of China which funded the project.

Funding

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 82002005), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 82271928), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2020JJ5787).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, No. 172 Tongzipo Road, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410013, People’s Republic of China

    Chudong Wang, Dan Wen, Weifeng Qu, Ruyi Xu, Yi Liu, Hongtao Jia, Xuan Tang, Jienan Li & Lagabaiyila Zha

  2. Department of Oral Implantology, Xiangya Hospital of Stomatology, Central South University, No. 72 Xiangya Road, Kaifu District, Changsha, Hunan Province, People’s Republic of China

    ZhiKai Tian & Ying Liu

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  1. Chudong Wang
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Contributions

CW selected SNP loci, conducted genome wide association analysis, and constructed a compound detection system. ZT collected samples and conducted data analysis. DW, WQ, and JL contributed ideas for analysis and experimental design. YL and LZ guided experiment. RX, YL, HJ, and XT did the study on Replication Group. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lagabaiyila Zha or Ying Liu.

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Wang, C., Tian, Z., Wen, D. et al. Preliminary study on genetic factors related to Demirjian’s tooth age estimation method based on genome-wide association analysis. Int J Legal Med 137, 1161–1179 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-023-03008-y

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