title: Automated DNA extraction of single dog hairs without roots for mitochondrial DNA analysis.
abstract: Dogs are intensely integrated in human social life and their shed hairs can play a major role in forensic investigations. The overall aim of this study was to validate a semi-automated extraction method for mitochondrial DNA analysis of telogenic dog hairs. Extracted DNA was amplified with a 95% success rate from 43 samples using two new experimental designs in which the mitochondrial control region was amplified as a single large (± 1260 bp) amplicon or as two individual amplicons (HV1 and HV2; ± 650 and 350 bp) with tailed-primers. The results prove that the extraction of dog hair mitochondrial DNA can easily be automated to provide sufficient DNA yield for the amplification of a forensically useful long mitochondrial DNA fragment or alternatively two short fragments with minimal loss of sequence in case of degraded samples.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Forensic Genetics and Molecular Archaeology, UZ Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 33, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. bram.bekaert@uzleuven.be
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bekaert
authors.forename: Maarten H D
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Larmuseau
authors.forename: Maarten P M
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Vanhove
authors.forename: Anouschka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Opdekamp
authors.forename: Ronny
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Decorte
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004285:Dogs / Q000235:genetics*; D004586:Electrophoresis; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial