title: Forensic DNA Analysis of Wheat Flour as Commonly Used in White Powder Cases.
abstract: In the wake of terrorist attacks using anthrax and ricin, white powder is often encountered in cases of malicious mischief and terrorist threats. Wheat flour is a common white powder encountered in such criminal investigations. We used DNA analysis to investigate wheat flour samples for identification and discrimination as trace evidence. Species identification of commercially available wheat flour was carried out by sequencing a partial region of the ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit gene (rbcL). Samples were discriminated using short tandem repeat (STR) analysis. The rbcL sequences of all wheat flour samples were identical and showed a high level of similarity to known wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) sequences. Furthermore, flours had characteristic patterns in STR analyses, with specific cultivars showing distinctive patterns. These results suggested that the identification of wheat flour species is possible using rbcL sequencing, and that STR analysis is useful for discriminating between samples.
authors.affiliation: National Research Institute of Police Science, 6-3-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, 277-0882, Japan.
authors.forename: Hitomi S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kikkawa
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental and life Science Okayama University, 1-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tahara
authors.affiliation: National Research Institute of Police Science, 6-3-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, 277-0882, Japan.
authors.forename: Ritsuko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sugita
mesh_terms: D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D005433:Flour; D044707:Forensic Sciences; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012273:Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D023481:Terrorism; D014908:Triticum / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D012273:Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase
keywords: DNA barcoding; DNA typing; criminalistics; forensic science; ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit gene; short tandem repeats; white powder material