DNA Methylation: Bridging life’s experience and genetics within forensic scenario

Abstract

DNA serving as the “blueprints of life” is a complex found in all biological cells carrying the genetic instructions for development and functioning of the organism. Inheritance of unique combination of genetic polymorphism results in DNA profile. In past few decades, the field of forensic genetics has witnessed several advancements from the radio-labelled DNA probes to the Short Tandem Repeats (STR) and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) that have fostered the emergence of biological materials as most reliable evidences at a crime scene for the purpose of human identification but then, are inadequate in distinguishing monozygotic twins. Also, these techniques are of unavailing in providing informations such as tissue-specificity of the DNA source, phenotypic identification, and age estimation. Epigenetics, particularly DNA methylation is evolving as a promising technique to overcome such drawbacks of conventional profiling techniques.