NCJ Number
225044
Journal
Forensic Science International: Genetics Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Dated: September 2008 Pages: 281-285
Date Published
September 2008
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This study identified and examined the various factors that influence DNA profiling from DNA recovered from fingerprints deposited on paper before and after fingerprint enhancement treatments.
Abstract
This study highlights the variability in outcomes when attempting to obtain DNA profiles from transfers on fingerprints. Still, this study found that samples which contained 0.04 ng/ml of DNA or more, consistently produced complete or nearly complete profiles using the DNeasy plant mini kit in extracting DNA from paper. At lower DNA yields, a high variability was noted in the success rate of the DNA profiling process. Decreased DNA recovery is believed to be the cause of poor quality DNA profiles derived from office paper and cards. Although fingerprint enhancement treatments significantly reduced the amount of DNA present, DNA amplification efficiency was not significantly affected. This suggests that the DNA amplification and profiling steps of the process are fairly robust and that even low-level samples can provide viable profiles. These results correlate with previous studies that found only a slight decrease in the quality of DNA profiles following fingerprint treatment. The study confirmed that augmenting the number of PCR cycles increased the percentage of profiles obtained; however, this method also reduced the quality of the PCR profile, resulting in a higher incidence of spurious results, including allelic dropouts, heterozygote imbalance, and contamination peaks. 4 figures and 18 references