Personal identification from human remains by mitochondrial DNA sequencing.
The authors report four cases in which severely damaged human remains were identified by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing. Degraded DNA was extracted from highly adipoceratous tissues using the phenol-chloroform method and polymerase chain reaction amplified for sequencing of two hypervariable regions, hypervariable region 1 and hypervariable region 2, of mitochondrial DNA. They also sequenced these regions of blood samples that were obtained from the presumptive mother or sister of the human remains. The sequencing results were compared with each other and with the Anderson's sequence. It was concluded from the sequence data that a lower part of a body in case 1 and some organs in case 2 were from the same woman, and a human head in case 3 and a female body in case 4 were from the relative of a presumptive mother and a sister, respectively.
Department of Legal Medicine, Nagoya City University Medical School, Japan.
Hiroyoshi
H
Koyama
Mineo
M
Iwasa
Susumu
S
Ohtani
Hiroshi
H
Ohira
Tsukasa
T
Tsuchimochi
Yoshitaka
Y
Maeno
Ichiro
I
Isobe
Tomohiro
T
Matsumoto
Yoshihiro
Y
Yamada
Masataka
M
Nagao
D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*; D014070:Tooth / Q000737:chemistry
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial