Humans Are Animals, Too: Critical Commonalities and Differences Between Human and Wildlife Forensic Genetics

Abstract

Wildlife forensics has recently been recognized among the wide variety of forensic science disciplines. This review compares human and wildlife DNA forensics, which use the same genetic tools, but often for far different purposes. Human forensic genetics almost invariably attempts to identify individual perpetrators involved in a given crime. Wildlife forensics often determines whether a crime has occurred. In addition to techniques familiar in human laboratories, like individual matching with STRs, wildlife analysts may be asked to determine the taxonomic identity, geographic source, or sex of evidence items, or the familial relationships or minimum number of individuals among a group of samples. This review highlights the common questions, legal framework, databases, and similar validation requirements to foster understanding between disciplines. Based on this understanding, human and wildlife DNA practitioners may work together and learn from each other in order to elevate the discipline of forensic genetics.

Wildlife forensic science in Hong Kong

“…Globally, there is a need for greater access to and coordination of regulated and authenticated reference materials for forensic tool development and application (Burnham‐Curtis et al, 2015; Ogden & Mailley, 2016). Unlike the strict requirements imposed on the uploading and usage of data in human forensics laboratories, wildlife forensic analyses are often based on data retrieved from large, international databases that encompass the multiple species encountered in wildlife forensic cases (Moore & Frazier, 2019). However, these databases, such as GenBank, tend to be unregulated and data can be uploaded openly without robust quality management, making some data unsuitable for forensic analyses (Ahlers et al, 2017).…”

“…Current discussions in the global community of wildlife forensics are focusing on new methods for data‐sharing. Suggestions include publication embargos for practitioners using data developed by other laboratories, acknowledgments for those laboratories, as well as formal multi‐laboratory collaborations to prevent duplicated efforts (Ewart et al, 2018; Moore & Frazier, 2019). Designating government resources for the development of reference databases containing genetic, chemical, and morphological data for strategically important species in Hong Kong's illegal trade would be a step forward.…”

“…In the latter, evidence is often provided to determine "who" was involved in the crime. In wildlife crime the main questions are "what" species the victims are and "where" the victims originate from (Moore & Frazier, 2019). The enhanced Impact Statements are intended to inform prosecutors about the range of optimized forensic techniques available to address these questions (e.g., Figure 2), along with a summary of what information is already available for each species (e.g., genetic sequences in a curated database).…”

Elements May Not Be Homogenously Distributed throughout The Bone, an Issue of Concern When Using X-Ray Fluorescence in Species Classification

“…Species identification can be successfully established through the use of many of these approaches using incomplete bone samples. More specifically, molecular identification (Holland and Parsons, 1999;Moore and Frazier, 2019;Pereira et al, 2019), macroscopic identification (Corrieri and Márquez-Grant, 2019), microscopic identification (Nganvongpanit et al, 2015;Cummaudo et al, 2018;Cortellini et al, 2019;Cummaudo et al, 2019) and/or elemental composition (Nganvongpanit et al, 2016c;Nganvongpanit et al, 2017b) can all be achieved with incomplete specimens. However, each approach is associated with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.…”

Genetic Polymorphism Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA from Chinese Guangdong Liannan Yao ethnic group

“…Due to its molecular characteristics, genetic patterns, speci c polymorphisms, rapid evolution speed and low recombination rate, highly variable mtDNA fragments have become a research hotspot in related genetics. [1][2][3][4][5] Genetic analysis of mtDNA is not only widely used in forensic medicine [6][7][8] , but also in anthropological research because it could indicate the genetic migration and evolution of the maternal population [9][10] . The researchers draft a phylogenetic tree of human mtDNA sequences referring to mutations of related genomes in mtDNA, and classi ed them into different haplotypes and haplogroups.…”