Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Impact of storage conditions and time on DNA yield from ammunition cartridges

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Legal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recovery of suitable amounts of DNA from ammunition cartridges for short tandem repeat (STR) or mitochondrial (mt) DNA analysis has been a challenge for crime laboratories. The metal composition of cartridge cases and projectiles exposes the DNA to harmful ions that damage and ultimately degrade the DNA such that it cannot be effectively amplified. The current study assessed the impact of time and storage conditions on touch DNA deposited on cartridge components of varying metal content: aluminum, nickel, brass, and copper. Elevated humidity levels facilitated greater DNA degradation and loss compared to low humidity (or “dry”) conditions, indicating that recovered cartridge component evidence should be stored in a low-humidity environment immediately after collection, preferably with a desiccant. As expected, a relationship was observed between the amount of time elapsed since the cartridge components were handled and the associated DNA yield. Interestingly, while yields dropped considerably in the first 48–96 h post-handling, regardless of the storage conditions, a layering effect was observed that helps maintain a relatively constant level of surface DNA over extended periods of time. An apparent layering effect was also observed on cartridge components following multiple surface depositions, where yields were two times higher than single deposition samples at similar timepoints. Overall, these findings suggest that storage conditions and a layering affect play an important role in the preservation of DNA on ammunition components.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Data sets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Truman J, Langton L, Planty M, BJS Statisticians (2013) The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Criminal Victimization, 2012. NCJ 243389

  2. Kena G, Truman JL, BJS Statisticians (2022) The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Trends and patterns in firearm violence, 1993-2018. NCJ 251663

  3. U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services Division (2022) The transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS): A Comparison of 2020 and 2021 NIBRS Estimates. https://kfor.com/wpcontent/uploads/sites/3/2022/10/NIBRS-Trend-Analysis-Report.pdf

  4. Holland MM, Bonds RM, Holland CA, McElhoe JA (2019) Recovery of mtDNA from unfired metallic ammunition components with an assessment of sequence profile quality and DNA damage through MPS analysis. Forensic Sci Int Genet 39:. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2018.12.008

  5. Montpetit S (2020) Obtaining DNA from ammunition: a review. WIREs Forensic Sci 2:. https://doi.org/10.1002/wfs2.1352

  6. Tozzo P, Mazzobel E, Marcante B et al (2022) Touch DNA sampling methods: efficacy evaluation and systematic review. Int J Mol Sci 23:15541. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232415541

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Moore D, Beaumont D, Brown M et al (2021) An investigation of two methods of DNA recovery from fired and unfired 9 mm ammunition. Sci Justice 61:160–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2020.11.002

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Jansson L, Forsberg C, Akel Y et al (2020) Factors affecting DNA recovery from cartridge cases. Forensic Sci Int Genet 48:102343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2020.102343

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Prasad E, Atwood L, van Oorschot RAH, et al (2021) Trace DNA recovery rates from firearms and ammunition as revealed by casework data. Aust J Forensic Sci 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00450618.2021.1939783

  10. Elwick K, Gauthier Q, Rink S et al (2022) Recovery of DNA from fired and unfired cartridge casings: comparison of two DNA collection methods. Forensic Sci Int Genet 59:102726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2022.102726

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Prasad E, Hitchcock C, Raymond J, et al (2020) DNA recovery from unfired and fired cartridge cases: a comparison of swabbing, tape lifting, vacuum filtration, and direct PCR. Forensic Sci Int 317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110507

  12. Thanakiatkrai P, Rerkamnuaychoke B (2017) Direct STR typing from bullet casings. Forensic Sci Int Genet Suppl Ser 6:e164–e166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2017.09.058

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Thanakiatkrai P, Rerkamnuaychoke B (2019) Direct STR typing from fired and unfired bullet casings. Forensic Sci Int 301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.05.037

  14. Jansson L, Swensson M, Gifvars E et al (2022) Individual shedder status and the origin of touch DNA. Forensic Sci Int Genet 56:102626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2021.102626

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Montpetit S, O’Donnell P (2015) An optimized procedure for obtaining DNA from fired and unfired ammunition. Forensic Sci Int Genet 17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2015.03.012

  16. Schiffner LA, Bajda EJ, Prinz M et al (2005) Optimization of a simple, automatable extraction method to recover sufficient DNA from low copy number DNA samples for generation of short tandem repeat profiles. Croat Med J 46:578–586

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Bille TW, Fahrig G, Weitz SM, Peiffer GA (2020) An improved process for the collection and DNA analysis of fired cartridge cases. Forensic Sci Int Genet 46:102238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2020.102238

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Gallimore JM, McElhoe JA, Holland MM (2018) Assessing heteroplasmic variant drift in the mtDNA control region of human hairs using an MPS approach. Forensic Sci Int Genet 32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2017.09.013

  19. R Cpre Team (2022) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/

  20. R Team (2022) RStudio: Integrated Development for R. Boston, MA: RStudio, Inc. http://www.rstudio.com/

  21. Shapiro SS, Wilk MB (1965) An analysis of variance test for normality (complete samples). Biometrika 52:591–611. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/52.3-4.591

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kruskal WH, Wallis WA (1952) Use of ranks in one-criterion variance analysis. J Am Stat Assoc 47:583–621. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1952.10483441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Dunn OJ (1961) Multiple comparisons among means. J Am Stat Assoc 56:52. https://doi.org/10.2307/2282330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Wickham H (2016) ggplot2: elegant graphics for data analysis. Springer-Verlag New York

  25. Bion R (2022) ggradar: create radar charts using ggplot2.

  26. Kassambara A (2020) _ggpubr: 'ggplot2' Based Publication Ready Plots. https://rpkgs.datanovia.com/ggpubr/

  27. Pedersen T (2022) ggforce: Accelerating 'ggplot2'. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ggforce

  28. Ogle DH, Doll JC, Wheeler P, Dinno A (2022) FSA: fisheries stock analysis. https://github.com/fishRCore-Team/FSA

  29. Tang J, Ostrander J, Wickenheiser R, Hall A (2020) Touch DNA in forensic science: the use of laboratory-created eccrine fingerprints to quantify DNA loss. Forensic Sci Int Synerg 2:1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2019.10.004

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Daly DJ, Murphy C, McDermott SD (2012) The transfer of touch DNA from hands to glass, fabric and wood. Forensic Sci Int Genet 6:41–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2010.12.016

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Goray M, Mitchell RJ, van Oorschot RAH (2010) Investigation of secondary DNA transfer of skin cells under controlled test conditions. Leg Med 12:117–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2010.01.003

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Buckingham AK, Harvey ML, van Oorschot RAH (2016) The origin of unknown source DNA from touched objects. Forensic Sci Int Genet 25:26–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2016.07.015

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Bille T, Grimes M, Podini D (2013) Induced damage on unfired brass cartridge casings. In: 24th Annual International Symposium on Human Identification. 24th Annual International Symposium on Human Identification

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Craig O’Connor of the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York City and Lauren Canale of the California Department of Justice laboratory for their support and input.

Funding

Financial support provided by the Eberly College of Science, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Forensic Science Program at Penn State University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forensic Science Program, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, 014 Thomas Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Jennifer McElhoe, Therese Mandracchia & Mitchell Holland

  2. United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, National Laboratory Center, 6000 Ammendale Road, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA

    Todd Bille

Authors
  1. Jennifer McElhoe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Therese Mandracchia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Todd Bille
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mitchell Holland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer McElhoe.

Ethics declarations

Research involving human participants and/or animals

This study was approved by The Pennsylvania State University internal review board (IRB) protocol STUDY00014305 and #HRB-588.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants/donors included in this study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 64 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

McElhoe, J., Mandracchia, T., Bille, T. et al. Impact of storage conditions and time on DNA yield from ammunition cartridges. Int J Legal Med 137, 995–1006 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-023-03018-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-023-03018-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation