Species assignment in forensics and the challenge of hybrids

Amorim, António; Pereira, Filipe; Alves, Cı́ntia; Garcı́a, Oscar

doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2020.102333

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The limitation using mitochondrial genes for species assignment can be solved with the expanded examination tool of paternal and/or biparental markers, for instance microsatellites or SNPs [63][64][65][66][67][68]. However, it is noted that the determination of species origin of hybrids requires more complex genetic methodology involving statistical analysis [69,70].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Sexing and Species Detection of Antlered European Hunting Game for Forensic Purposes

Zenke

Zorkóczy

Lehotzky³

et al. 2022

Animals

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Molecular sexing techniques are widely applied in conservation biology, although the range of forensically validated methods is fairly limited. The primary aim of this work was to develop forensically validated assays, using two PCR panels for sex and species assignment for the abundant antlered European game species: red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama dama). Segments of the SRY and Amelogenin X/Y genes for sex determination, additionally species-specific cytochrome b regions for species detection were targeted and separately amplified in two multiplex reactions. These assays can reliably analyze trace amounts of DNA. The results of both can easily be visualized and interpreted practically, either on agarose gel or by capillary electrophoresis. These simple, fast molecular assays are able to affect the early-stage resolution of disputed or unsolved poaching cases, without the need of individualization or sequencing of forensic samples.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Sexing and Species Detection of Antlered European Hunting Game for Forensic Purposes

Zenke

Zorkóczy

Lehotzky³

et al. 2022

Animals

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“…However, the use of mitochondrial genes may not provide a detectable resolution between closely related taxa [ 30 ] and may be misleading in the presence of hybrids, whereby the tested sample will be wrongfully assigned to the female parental species [ 31 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combination of Multiple Microsatellite Analysis and Genome-Wide SNP Genotyping Helps to Solve Wildlife Crime: A Case Study of Poaching of a Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica) in Russian Mountain National Park

Rodionov

Deniskova

Dotsev

et al. 2021

Animals

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Poaching is one of the major types of wildlife crime in Russia. Remnants of goats (presumably the wild endemic species, the Caucasian tur) were found in an area of the Caucasian mountains. The case study involves a suspected poacher whose vehicle was found to have two duffel bags containing pieces of a carcass, which he claimed was that of a goat from his flock. The aim of the forensic genetic analysis for this case was to (i) establish individual identity and (ii) perform species identification. DNA typing based on fourteen microsatellites revealed that STR-genotypes generated from pieces of evidence found at crime scene fully matched those obtained from the evidence seized from the suspect. The results of genome-wide SNP-genotyping, using Illumina Goat SNP50 BeadChip, provided evidence that the poached animal was a wild Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica). Thus, based on comprehensive molecular genetic analysis, evidence of poaching was obtained and sent to local authorities. To our knowledge, this case study is the first to attempt to use DNA chips in wildlife forensics of ungulates.

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“…In these cases, the removal of few records may have a major impact in the dataset grading. On the contrary, intricate and complex dataset graphs, as occurred for Bovidae family, may be due to inaccuracies in the data uploaded but also to the existence of closely related species, including wild and domesticated taxa, sometimes hybridizing [14].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

4SpecID: Reference DNA Libraries Auditing and Annotation System for Forensic Applications

Neto¹,

Pinto

Proença

et al. 2021

Genes

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Forensic genetics is a fast-growing field that frequently requires DNA-based taxonomy, namely, when evidence are parts of specimens, often highly processed in food, potions, or ointments. Reference DNA-sequences libraries, such as BOLD or GenBank, are imperative tools for taxonomic assignment, particularly when morphology is inadequate for classification. The auditing and curation of these datasets require reliable mechanisms, preferably with automated data preprocessing. Software tools were developed to grade these datasets considering as primary criterion the number of records, which is not compliant with forensic standards, where the priority is validation from independent sources. Moreover, 4SpecID is an efficient and freely available software tool developed to audit and annotate reference libraries, specifically designed for forensic applications. Its intuitive user-friendly interface virtually accesses any database and includes specific data mining functions tuned for the widespread BOLD repositories. The built tool was evaluated in laptop MacBook and a dual-Xeon server with a large BOLD dataset (Culicidae, 36,115 records), and the best execution time to grade the dataset on the laptop was 0.28 s. Datasets of Bovidae and Felidae families were used to evaluate the quality of the tool and the relevance of independent sources validation.

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Species assignment in forensics and the challenge of hybrids

Cited by 23 publications

References 67 publications

Molecular Sexing and Species Detection of Antlered European Hunting Game for Forensic Purposes

Molecular Sexing and Species Detection of Antlered European Hunting Game for Forensic Purposes

Combination of Multiple Microsatellite Analysis and Genome-Wide SNP Genotyping Helps to Solve Wildlife Crime: A Case Study of Poaching of a Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica) in Russian Mountain National Park

4SpecID: Reference DNA Libraries Auditing and Annotation System for Forensic Applications

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