Reconstructing full and partial STR profiles from severely burned human remains using comparative ancient and...

Area of Science:

• Forensic Science
• Molecular Biology
• Genetics

Background:

• Thermal degradation of DNA complicates medico-legal investigations due to low yields and damaged DNA.
• Standard forensic DNA recovery methods are often ineffective for severely burned human remains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare DNA yields and STR profiling success rates between ancient DNA (aDNA) and forensic DNA extraction protocols.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of aDNA methods for recovering DNA from fire-damaged skeletal remains.

Main Methods:

• Comparison of two DNA extraction protocols: established aDNA and forensic methods.
• Analysis of DNA yields and STR results from skeletal elements of 23 fire-incident victims.
• Assessment of STR profile quality across different temperature-induced burn categories.

Main Results:

• aDNA extraction protocol yielded higher quality full and partial STR profiles compared to the forensic method.
• An inverse correlation was observed between increasing temperature, DNA yield, and STR quality.
• aDNA methods proved effective even with ultrashort DNA fragments (approx. 50 bp).

Conclusions:

• aDNA extraction methods are a viable alternative to current forensic practices for challenging human remains.
• Adopting aDNA protocols can enhance DNA recovery and STR genotyping from fire-exposed skeletal samples.
• This research improves DNA analysis capabilities in forensic investigations involving thermal damage.