title: Selective enrichment of STRs for applications in forensic human identification.
abstract: Forensic human identification (HID) is currently based on determining repeat length polymorphisms located in short tandem repeat regions in the human genome. Despite the great progress made in the area of multiplex PCR-based approaches, limitations associated with challenging forensic samples such as DNA degradation, cooccurrence of inhabited microbial DNA and PCR inhibitors significantly affect the success rate of human DNA profiling. We have developed a sequence-specific pre-PCR STR enrichment method and evaluated its efficacy using DNA samples doped with various contaminants in view of its application on compromised forensic samples. This strategy has enabled us to generate complete and reproducible DNA profiles from samples doped with fivefold excess of nonhuman DNA and three to fourfold excess of various potent PCR inhibitors than that is claimed to be tolerated by some of the widely used commercial multiplex STR kits, from as little as two nanograms of degraded human DNA. The "hybrid capture"-based STR enrichment strategy described in this study is easily adaptable and offers a sensitive, efficient, and economical approach for successful human DNA profiling from compromised and recalcitrant forensic samples that are usually encountered in mass disaster incidents and missing persons' identifications.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Genomics and Profiling Applications, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Sreeja R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Gadipally
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Genomics and Profiling Applications, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, India.|Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Graduate studies, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Anujit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of DNA Fingerprinting Services, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, India.|Laboratory of Genomics and Profiling Applications, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Madhusudan R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Nandineni
mesh_terms: D053803:Forensic Genetics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D021141:Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: DNA profiling; Forensic genotyping; PCR inhibitors; STR enrichment