Analysis of uni and bi-parental markers in mixture samples: Lessons from the 22nd GHEP-ISFG Intercomparison Exercise.

Since 1992, the Spanish and Portuguese-Speaking Working Group of the ISFG (GHEP-ISFG) has been organizing annual Intercomparison Exercises (IEs) coordinated by the Quality Service at the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (INTCF) from Madrid, aiming to provide proficiency tests for forensic DNA laboratories. Each annual exercise comprises a Basic (recently accredited under ISO/IEC 17043: 2010) and an Advanced Level, both including a kinship and a forensic module. Here, we show the results for both autosomal and sex-chromosomal STRs, and for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in two samples included in the forensic modules, namely a mixture 2:1 (v/v) saliva/blood (M4) and a mixture 4:1 (v/v) saliva/semen (M8) out of the five items provided in the 2014 GHEP-ISFG IE. Discrepancies, other than typos or nomenclature errors (over the total allele calls), represented 6.5% (M4) and 4.7% (M8) for autosomal STRs, 15.4% (M4) and 7.8% (M8) for X-STRs, and 1.2% (M4) and 0.0% (M8) for Y-STRs. Drop-out and drop-in alleles were the main cause of errors, with laboratories using different criteria regarding inclusion of minor peaks and stutter bands. Commonly used commercial kits yielded different results for a micro-variant detected at locus D12S391. In addition, the analysis of electropherograms revealed that the proportions of the contributors detected in the mixtures varied among the participants. In regards to mtDNA analysis, besides important discrepancies in reporting heteroplasmies, there was no agreement for the results of sample M4. Thus, while some laboratories documented a single control region haplotype, a few reported unexpected profiles (suggesting contamination problems). For M8, most laboratories detected only the haplotype corresponding to the saliva. Although the GHEP-ISFG has already a large experience in IEs, the present multi-centric study revealed challenges that still exist related to DNA mixtures interpretation. Overall, the results emphasize the need for further research and training actions in order to improve the analysis of mixtures among the forensic practitioners.

New cyt b gene universal primer set for forensic analysis.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA, and in particular the cytochrome b gene (cyt b), has become an essential tool for species identification in routine forensic practice. In cases of degraded samples, where the DNA is fractionated, universal primers that are highly efficient for the amplification of the target region are necessary. Therefore, in the present study a new universal cyt b primer set with high species identification capabilities, even in samples with highly degraded DNA, has been developed. In order to achieve this objective, the primers were designed following the alignment of complete sequences of the cyt b from 751 species from the Class of Mammalia listed in GenBank. A highly variable region of 148bp flanked by highly conserved sequences was chosen for placing the primers. The effectiveness of the new pair of primers was examined in 63 animal species belonging to 38 Families from 14 Orders and 5 Classes (Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, Actinopterygii, and Malacostraca). Species determination was possible in all cases, which shows that the fragment analyzed provided a high capability for species identification. Furthermore, to ensure the efficiency of the 148bp fragment, the intraspecific variability was analyzed by calculating the concordance between individuals with the BLAST tool from the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnological Information). The intraspecific concordance levels were superior to 97% in all species. Likewise, the phylogenetic information from the selected fragment was confirmed by obtaining the phylogenetic tree from the sequences of the species analyzed. Evidence of the high power of phylogenetic discrimination of the analyzed fragment of the cyt b was obtained, as 93.75% of the species were grouped within their corresponding Orders. Finally, the analysis of 40 degraded samples with small-size DNA fragments showed that the new pair of primers permits identifying the species, even when the DNA is highly degraded as it is very common in forensic samples.