Application: DNA typing to DVI (missing persons)

• list types of DVI (missing persons) cases

  • murder
  • suicide
  • natural deaths
  • war deaths
  • force disappearances (80 countires)
  • natural disasters
  • terrorist attacks
• explain recovery and ID of human remains

  • complex and requires sophiscated DNA analysis
• what is required for successful ID of remains

  1. STR
  2. mtDNA or y-chr
  3. biogeographical ancestry (SNPS)
  4. physical appearances (SNPS)
  5. sex
• List challenges with degraded human remains

  • no fingerprints
  • no skull, teeth or atne molten dental records
  • propley persevere bone or teeth
  • remains are mixed
  • small amount of bone
  • deliberately destroyed
  • DNA decays: breaks down 20-230 nucleotides longs
• one of the biggest challenges

  • contamination in the lab through things like soil etc
• explain the contamination issue 


  99% of all dna extracted from a buried human remains are not endogenous there is contamination that occurs
• explore dna present in post-mortem remains

  1. degraded/fragmeneated <100 bp
  2. low []
  3. chemically degraded <- base modifications
  4. contamination with environment and modern DNA
  5. difficult to extract and recover
  6. ancient DN
• ancient DNA lab

  • ultra clear molecular lab
  • positive air pressure to keep dust, bugs and etc out
  • uv sterilisation and bleach as asepic conditions
  • PPE
• list different inheritance patterns

  1. autosomal
  2. linage markers
• advantages of mtDNA

  1. maternally inherited
  2. high copy number
  3. used to predict maternal bio geographical ancestry
  4. compared to distant relatives
  5. useful for degraded dna or samples with little to none nDNA (hair shafts)
• disadvantages of mtDNA

  1. maternally inherited <-especially if relatives die at the same time>
  2. not unique ID
  3. some mtDNA are common upto 10% in some pop
• mtDNA control regions 


  piece of a region for non-coding region, its is 1,00 by in length and has 3 HVR

  problem: multi indivs have the same control regions
• why is mtDNA useful for MP/DVI

  compared to nDNA, mtDNA

  1. targets shorter DNA fragments 80-150bp
  2. high copy number which means its lives longer
  3. can be compared to distant relatives
• what does hair and eye colour help with

  for the preduction to prioritise unexculded sailors for ID using mtDNA.