title: Molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of the forensically important family Piophilidae (Diptera) from different European locations.
abstract: Species identification plays an important role in forensic entomology and is mandatory for an accurate calculation of the minimum post-mortem interval. Many important Diptera and Coleoptera taxa of the cadaver community can already be identified by common barcoding approaches, i.e., by sequencing a 658bp region in the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (coI) gene. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of reference barcodes for species, in particular, that can be found on cadavers at later decomposition stages. Flies of the family Piophilidae illustrate this gap of knowledge perfectly. Due to the fact that a reliable morphological identification key for the immature stages of this flies is still missing and the immature stages of many piophilids cannot be assigned to a certain species, there is need for additional tools to identify forensically relevant taxa. We collected adult piophilid specimens at 10 locations in five European countries: Spain (n=3 locations), Germany (n=3), Portugal (n=2), Poland (n=1) and Switzerland (n=1). Apart from the coI barcoding region, we additionally analyzed a 398bp long region of the nuclear elongation factor 1 alpha (ef1a) and subsequently established the molecular identifier for nine piophilid species. In addition, we present the molecular phylogeny of the examined taxa.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute of Legal Medicine, Forensic Biology Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Electronic address: zajac@med.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Barbara Karolina
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Zajac
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum, Department of Life Sciences, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: d.martin-vega@nhm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Martin-Vega
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute of Legal Medicine, Forensic Biology Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Electronic address: nina.feddern@web.de.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Feddern
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute of Legal Medicine, Forensic Biology Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Electronic address: heike@fremdt.eu.
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fremdt
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Legal Medicine, Centre for Forensic Science, Coimbra, Portugal. Electronic address: cbcastro@fc.ul.pt.
authors.forename: Catharina Prado
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: e Castro
authors.affiliation: Nicolaus Copernicus university, Chair of Ecology and Biogeography, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, Torun, Poland. Electronic address: Krzysztof.Szpila@umk.pl.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Szpila
authors.affiliation: Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, SG 204, Microtraces/Biology, Munich, Germany. Electronic address: frank.reckel@polizei.bayern.de.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Reckel
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute of Legal Medicine, Forensic Biology Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Electronic address: s.schuett@em.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Svenja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schütt
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute of Legal Medicine, Forensic Biology Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Electronic address: verhoff@med.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Marcel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Verhoff
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute of Legal Medicine, Forensic Biology Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Electronic address: amendt@em.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Amendt
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute of Legal Medicine, Forensic Biology Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Electronic address: zehner@em.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zehner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic / Q000379:methods; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D004175:Diptera / Q000235:genetics*; D004772:Entomology / Q000379:methods; D005060:Europe; D044707:Forensic Sciences; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: Barcoding; Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (coI); Elongation factor 1 alpha (ef1a); Forensic entomology; Identification success; Piophilidae