Abstract
Over the past twenty years, DNA analysis has revolutionized forensic science, and
has become a dominant tool in law enforcement. Today, DNA evidence is key to the conviction
or exoneration of suspects of various types of crime, from theft to rape and murder.
However, the disturbing possibility that DNA evidence can be faked has been overlooked.
It turns out that standard molecular biology techniques such as PCR, molecular cloning,
and recently developed whole genome amplification (WGA), enable anyone with basic
equipment and know-how to produce practically unlimited amounts of in vitro synthesized (artificial) DNA with any desired genetic profile. This artificial DNA
can then be applied to surfaces of objects or incorporated into genuine human tissues
and planted in crime scenes. Here we show that the current forensic procedure fails
to distinguish between such samples of blood, saliva, and touched surfaces with artificial
DNA, and corresponding samples with in vivo generated (natural) DNA. Furthermore, genotyping of both artificial and natural samples
with Profiler Plus® yielded full profiles with no anomalies. In order to effectively deal with this problem,
we developed an authentication assay, which distinguishes between natural and artificial
DNA based on methylation analysis of a set of genomic loci: in natural DNA, some loci
are methylated and others are unmethylated, while in artificial DNA all loci are unmethylated.
The assay was tested on natural and artificial samples of blood, saliva, and touched
surfaces, with complete success. Adopting an authentication assay for casework samples
as part of the forensic procedure is necessary for maintaining the high credibility
of DNA evidence in the judiciary system.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 17, 2009
Accepted:
June 16,
2009
Received in revised form:
June 11,
2009
Received:
April 3,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Authentication of forensic DNA samples [Forensic Sci. Int. Genet. (2009)]Forensic Science International: GeneticsVol. 5Issue 3
- PreviewFrumkin et al. in their article entitled “Authentication of forensic DNA samples” Forensic Sci. Int. Genet. (2009) doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2009.06.009 , describe the possibility of faking the results of forensic DNA analysis by applying artificial DNA on objects at crime scenes. In addition, they propose an authentification procedure for distinguishing between natural and artificial DNA.
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- Authentication of forensic DNA samplesForensic Science International: GeneticsVol. 5Issue 3
- PreviewIn their recent paper entitled “Authentication of Forensic DNA samples” Frumkin et al. [1] describe not only how they are suggesting to authenticate DNA found at a crime scene but also explain in detail how to fabricate samples and plant DNA of specific individuals as false evidence. We believe that this type of information should have been handled more carefully and have several concerns with this publication.
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