Experimental procedures comparing the activity of different Taq polymerases

Forensic investigations involve several scientific branches among which biological analyses are much more frequently requested as a consequence of their importance and great versatility towards most of the traces found on the crime scene. Biological analyses are lead in subsequent steps: extraction, amplification and STR typing of the specimens collected on the crime scene. All of these techniques have been modified from original protocols according to the kind of sample to process. A critical point in our analysis is trying to amplify small amounts of DNA extracted from decomposed tissues or objects, small biological traces have been left on, with high fidelity and account. That's why we have decided to settle on an experimental procedure aimed to find the best DNA polymerase according to our purposes. We have tested different Taq polymerases on the same known DNA sample at several dilutions and have compared quality and amount of amplified DNA in order to appreciate the amplifying capability of each enzyme. These data have been analyzed as a function of the technical properties of each engineered Taq polymerase and results are shown in details.