An evaluation of the performance of five extraction methods: Chelex® 100, QIAamp® DNA Blood Mini Kit, QIAamp® DNA Investigator Kit, QIAsymphony® DNA Investigator® Kit and DNA IQ™.

DNA left at a crime scene was often limited in amount and far from pristine. To maximize the chance of recovering as much information as possible from such compromised samples, an appropriate extraction method using the available technologies needs to be devised. In this study, we used human blood, buffy coat and a total of 76 simulated touch DNA samples to test the effectiveness of the following five common DNA extraction methods, namely, Chelex® 100, QIAamp® DNA Blood Mini Kit, QIAamp® DNA Investigator Kit, QIAsymphony® DNA Investigator® Kit and DNA IQ™ system, in the recovery of such DNA. We demonstrated that the QIAamp® and QIAsymphony® DNA Investigator® Kits, and the DNA IQ™ system, exhibited a better effectiveness in DNA recovery amongst these methods and yielded extracts with higher success rate in subsequent DNA profiling. These extracts also generated profiles with better intra-colour signal balance. The findings in this work allowed us to propose an extraction approach as follows: 1) casework samples shall be extracted with the QIAamp®/QIAsymphony® DNA Investigator® Kits or the DNA IQ™ system, viz., QIAsymphony® DNA Investigator® Kit and DNA IQ™, due to their higher throughput, are for the touched DNA evidence from the volume crime, while QIAamp® DNA Investigator Kit is preferable for challenging bloodstain samples; and 2) control samples, such as buccal swab, with known identity can be extracted with the Chelex, due to their cheaper cost per sample.

Forensic DNA typing strategy of degraded DNA on discarded cigarette ends using the AmpFℓSTR® Identifiler®, Identifiler® Plus and MiniFiler™ PCR amplification kits.

DNA left on a forensic sample is often prone to degradation, especially if left to the elements. To maximize the chance of retrieving the most information from such compromised DNA, an appropriate profiling scheme using the available technologies needs to be devised. In this study, a total of 62 cigarette ends collected under different conditions of environmental exposure were employed to test the effectiveness of three DNA amplification kits, namely the Applied Biosystems™ AmpFℓSTR® Identifiler®, Identifiler® Plus and MiniFiler™ PCR Amplification Kits, in the profiling of such compromised DNA. We demonstrated that Identifiler® Plus could substitute Identifiler® to improve the effectiveness of profiling for those inhibited cigarette samples. MiniFiler™, on the other hand, could supplement Identifiler®/Identifiler® Plus profiles and provide additional genetic information to enhance the evidential value of the samples, especially for those that have suffered from DNA degradation to a greater extent. The findings in this work allowed us to propose a DNA profiling strategy as follow: 1) samples yielding complete Identifiler®/Identifiler® Plus profiles require no further testing with MiniFiler™; 2) samples yielding partial single-source profiles to be tested with MiniFiler™ to add genetic information; 3) samples yielding no results are unlikely to yield any results with MiniFiler™.