title: Highly efficient nuclear DNA typing of the World War II skeletal remains using three new autosomal short tandem repeat amplification kits with the extended European Standard Set of loci.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To perform an efficiency study of three new amplification kits with the extended European Standard Set (ESS) of loci for autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) typing of skeletal remains excavated from the World War II mass graves in Slovenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the beginning of the 2011, we analyzed 102 bones and teeth using the PowerPlex ESX 17 System (Promega), AmpFiSTR NGM PCR Amplification Kit (Applied Biosystems), and Investigator ESSplex Kit (Qiagen). We cleaned the bones and teeth, removed surface contamination, and ground them into a powder using liquid nitrogen. Prior to DNA isolation with Biorobot EZ1 (Qiagen), 0.5 g bone or tooth powder was decalcified. Nuclear DNA of the samples was quantified using real-time polymerase chain reaction. All three kits used the same extract with the amplification conditions recommended by the manufacturers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We extracted up to 131 ng DNA/g of powder from the bones and teeth. All three amplification kits showed very similar efficiency, since DNA typing was successful with all amplification kits in 101 out of 102 bones and teeth, which represents a 99% success rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The commercially available ESX 17, ESSplex, and NGM kits are highly reliable for STR typing of World War II skeletal remains with the DNA extraction method optimized in our laboratory.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Korytkova 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia. irena.zupanic@mf.uni-lj.si
authors.forename: Irena
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zupanic Pajnic
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gornjak Pogorelc
authors.forename: Joze
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Balazic
authors.forename: Tomaz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zupanc
authors.forename: Borut
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stefanic
mesh_terms: D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000737:chemistry; D004247:DNA / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D005553:Forensic Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017524:Slovenia; D014070:Tooth / Q000737:chemistry; D047789:World War II
chemical_list: D004247:DNA