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Phylogenetic analysis of forensically important Lucilia flies based on cytochrome oxidase I sequence: a cautionary tale for forensic species determination

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Abstract

Forensic scientists are increasingly using DNA to identify the species of a tissue sample. However, little attention has been paid to basic experimental design issues such as replication and the selection of taxa when designing a species diagnostic test. We present an example using the forensically important fly genus Lucilia in which an increasingly larger sample size revealed that species diagnosis based on the commonly used cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI) was less straightforward than we initially thought. This locus may still be useful for diagnosing Lucilia specimens, but additional knowledge other than the genotype will be required to reduce the list of candidate species to include only forms that can be distinguished by COI. We believe that these results illustrate the importance of study design and biological knowledge of the study species when proposing a DNA-based identification test for any taxonomic group.

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Acknowledgments

We-Yun Chen kindly provided our Hemipyrellia ligurriens specimen. We are grateful to the US National Institute of Justice (JDW ), the University of Exeter (JRS), and the Wellcome Trust (RW and JRS) for financial support. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the US Department of Justice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26506, USA

    Jeffrey D. Wells

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1UG, Bristol, UK

    Richard Wall

  3. School of Biological Sciences, Hatherly Building, University of Exeter, EX4 4PS, Exeter, UK

    Jamie R. Stevens

Authors
  1. Jeffrey D. Wells
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  2. Richard Wall
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  3. Jamie R. Stevens
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Correspondence to Jeffrey D. Wells.

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Wells, J.D., Wall, R. & Stevens, J.R. Phylogenetic analysis of forensically important Lucilia flies based on cytochrome oxidase I sequence: a cautionary tale for forensic species determination. Int J Legal Med 121, 229–233 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-006-0147-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-006-0147-1

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