Examination of stomach contents is one of the important steps in medical legal autopsy. Vegetative materials such as stems, roots, and seeds in stomach contents can be valuable evidence for providing investigative leads in death investigation. Currently, the identification of plant materials relies on microscopic and morphologic examination. We have found that many seeds are often protected from acid degradation during stomach digestion by their tough exterior seed coat. Tomato seeds were selected as a model system to assess DNA analysis and plant variety marker identification. The DNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism method was performed to determine if the DNA obtained from single seeds could be used for PCR analysis. From the amplified fragment length polymorphism results, some candidate markers for individualizing seeds from morphologically distinct tomatoes were identified. These data on DNA analysis of tomato seeds indicate amplified fragment length polymorphism is a viable procedure for the individualization of seeds from stomach contents in forensic investigations.
Ingested food is one of the important types of forensic evidence obtained during a medicolegal autopsy. Many materials containing seeds pass through the human digestive system and are still recognizable; thus, they can be valuable for providing investigative leads. Currently, the identification of seeds relies on microscopic and morphologic examination. However this method sometimes can be problematic. For example, the microscopic appearance of the ingested tomato and pepper seeds is very similar; thus, it is not always easy to distinguish these seeds by comparing their physical characteristics. Tomato and pepper seeds were selected as a model system to assess the value of performing DNA analysis as an alternate and/or complimentary means of seed identification. Results of blind testing indicate that the deoxyribonucleic acid-amplified fragment length polymorphism (DNA-AFLP) results were able to discriminate between pepper and tomato seed samples after they passed through the digestive system.
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