Highlights
- •Non-destructive DNA collection with the ESDA was compared to dry swabbing and substrate cutting.
- •DNA was collected from latent fingerprints on six different varieties of paper.
- •The dry swabbing technique yielded the highest percentage of full and high partial STR profiles.
- •ESDA collection generated a higher percentage of useable STR profiles than substrate cutting.
- •Full STR profiles can be obtained from a document without compromising its structural integrity.
Abstract
The ability to detect and non-destructively collect biological samples for DNA processing
would benefit the forensic community by preserving the physical integrity of evidentiary
items for more thorough evaluations by other forensic disciplines. The Electrostatic
Detection Apparatus (ESDA®) was systemically evaluated for its ability to non-destructively collect DNA from
latent fingerprints deposited on various paper substrates for short tandem repeat
(STR) DNA profiling. Fingerprints were deposited on a variety of paper substrates
that included resume paper, cotton paper, magazine paper, currency, copy paper, and
newspaper. Three DNA collection techniques were performed: ESDA collection, dry swabbing,
and substrate cutting. Efficacy of each collection technique was evaluated by the
quantity of DNA present in each sample and the percent profile generated by each sample.
Both the ESDA and dry swabbing non-destructive sampling techniques outperformed the
destructive methodology of substrate cutting. A greater number of full profiles were
generated from samples collected with the non-destructive dry swabbing collection
technique than were generated from samples collected with the ESDA; however, the ESDA
also allowed the user to visualize the area of interest while non-destructively collecting
the biological material. The ability to visualize the biological material made sampling
straightforward and eliminated the need for numerous, random swabbings/cuttings. Based
on these results, the evaluated non-destructive ESDA collection technique has great
potential for real-world forensic implementation.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 14, 2014
Accepted:
November 9,
2014
Received in revised form:
October 8,
2014
Received:
July 22,
2014
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
