Sex determination is one of the basic components in victim identification. This study aims to ascertain the sex of an individual from burnt teeth samples exposed at different temperature and time through nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on the amelogenin (AMEL) sex marker, to calculate the specificity and sensitivity, and to compare with previous relevant studies. A total of 17 teeth samples was subjected to burning at different temperatures ranging from 100°C to 500°C, at 2 to 10 minutes. The whole tooth was used for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction by phenol-chloroform method. All samples were quantified for DNA concentration and then analyzed with nested PCR using two pairs of AMEL primer and results of sex typing were recorded. Out of 17 samples, genomic DNA extracted from 6 samples have concentrations ranging from 27.3-130.6 ng/µL. Nested PCR could amplify 16 samples for AMEL gene. Sex typing using AMEL gene showed 76.47% accuracy. Sensitivity of AMEL primer was increased from 6.67% to 63.64% using nested PCR technique; specificity of both external and internal primer was reported at 100%. Nested PCR of AMEL gene proved to be a suitable method for unequivocal determination of sex from degraded DNA samples.
The analysis of the control region of human mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) especially hypervariable regions I (HVI) and II (HVII) segments have been proven to be useful for human identification. For forensic application of mtDNA profiling in Malaysia, a comprehensive database on both HVI and HVII regions are essential. In order to identify polymorphic positions and to determine their frequency in the Malay population, mtDNA HVI and HVII regions of 103 maternally unrelated individuals were amplified ,sequenced and compared with Cambridge reference sequence (CRS). Sequence comparison led to the identification of a total of 446 and 604 location polymorphisms in mtDNA HVI and HVII regions respectively. This polymorphisms defined by 88 haplotypes (81 unique) in the HVI and 78 haplotypes (64 unique) in the HVII regions. In combined HVI and HVII defined 101 haplotypes (99 unique) was defined. In the HVII region All the individuals in HVII showed nucleotide transition event from A G at nucleotide position 073 and 263 and an insertion of cytosine (315.1C) at nucleotide position 315. The genetic diversity and probability of random match in combined HVI and HVII of 103 Malay individuals was found to be 0.9996 and 0.0101 respectively.Scientific World, Vol. 12, No. 12, September 2014, page 24-29
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