Problems of Forensic Sciences 2002 Vol. 50 (L) 91-98
ANALYSIS OF DOG MITOCHONDRIAL DNA FOR FORENSIC IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES
Wojciech BRANICKI1, Tomasz KUPIEC1, Ryszard PAWŁOWSKI1,2
1Institute of Forensic Research, Cracow
2Chair and Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical Academy, Gdańsk
Streszczenie
Shed hairs are among biological traces which are very often associated with crime scenes. Sometimes they are of animal origin and, among these, hairs of domestic animals are most often recovered. Morphological studies applied to identification of animal hairs give very poor results. Currently, however, genetic markers can be applied to distinguish between animal individuals. We present here an application of a previously described technique of analysis of hypervariable region 1 (HV1), the most variable part of animal mitochondrialDNA(mtDNA), for dog identification purposes. Two murder cases where analysis of polymorphic segments of mtDNA helped with the exclusion of suspected dog owners are presented as examples. MtDNA variants determined in evidence hairs shed at crime scenes were compared with variants of reference hairs collected from dogs associated with the suspects.
Słowa kluczowe
Forensic science; mtDNA; HV1; Dog hair; Sequence analysis.