The 2000–2001 GEP–ISFG Collaborative Exercise on mtDNA: assessing the cause of unsuccessful mtDNA PCR amplification of hair shaft samples

Statistical comparison of dog and cat guard hairs using numerical morphology

“…Forensic hair examiners expect that mtDNA analysis will find widespread use as a technique for forensic hair comparison [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. However, they believe that a morphological examination is important in forensic comparisons of evidential hairs, even today [10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

“…Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis using PCR amplification and direct sequencing has been particularly useful for decomposed and trace amounts of DNA obtained from a single hair [1][2][3][4][5]. Some of the problems in the application of mtDNA analysis to hair samples have been reviewed from the point of view of forensic science [6][7][8][9]. However, it is clear that the morphological examination of hair is an important method that can be used in the forensic comparison of evidential hairs, even today [10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Mitochondrial DNA error prophylaxis: assessing the causes of errors in the GEP’02–03 proficiency testing trial

“…Analysis of the hair shafts (M6) was significantly more successful: 13 out of 19 labs (68%; when contrasting this frequency with the ones from Table 1, note that (Table 2), there is one lab that did not analyze M2, but shows results for M6). This clearly contrasts the low rate of success yielded by the previous edition of the GEP mtDNA exercise due to the low quantity and quality of DNA present in those hair samples (see [5]). …”

“…Since 1997, the Spanish and Portuguese Working Group (GEP) of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) included mtDNA profiling as part of the GEP proficiency testing program [1][2][3][4][5]. Along the years, the number of participating labs has progressively increased.…”

On the potential of using peculiarities of the protein intrinsic disorder distribution in mitochondrial cytochromebto identify the source of animal meats

“…23 Other mtDNA genes have proven useful in wildlife forensics. 43,44 Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are biologically active proteins that do not have predetermined tertiary structure while in an isolated state in solution [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] and exist as dynamic conformational ensembles. 46,48,52,[55][56][57][58] Structurally, such proteins are highly heterogeneous and range from collapsed (molten globule-like), to partially collapsed (pre-molten globule-like) and to even highly disorganized, coil-like forms.…”