A study has revealed that the bacteria living in pubic hair is different for men and women and can help the police distinguish between individuals.
Forensic scientists say that stray pubic hairs left at a crime scene could help to identify a rapist even if he had used a condom to prevent DNA fingerprinting of his semen.
The study is the first to find that individuals have a unique profile of bacteria on their pubic hair.
Forensic biologist, Silvana Tridico of Murdoch University in Perth said that hair is commonly found at crime scenes but have till now failed to provide human DNA unless they have been forcibly removed, leaving some part of their roots attached.
Dr Tridico said "Mammalian hairs are one of the most ubiquitous types of trace evidence collected in the course of forensic investigations. However, hairs that are naturally shed or that lack roots are problematic for DNA profiling; these hair types often contain insufficient nuclear DNA to yield short tandem repeat (STR) profiles. Our study attempts to address this forensic capability gap, by conducting an assessment into the applicability of metagenomic analyses of human scalp and pubic hair".
One of the most interesting findings to emerge from the study is that even without hair being transferred; DNA from the microbes on hair can be transferred during sexual activity.
This means that police can check for transfer of bacteria between victims and suspects in rape cases.
The team added "Forty-two DNA extracts obtained from human scalp and pubic hairs generated a total of 79,766 reads, yielding 39,814 reads. The results revealed the presence of unique combinations of microbes that can enable discrimination between individuals and female pubic hairs. Of all the data generated in this study, the next-generation sequencing (NGS) data generated from pubic hair held the most potential for forensic applications".
"To the best of our knowledge, this present study is the first to qualitatively assess the viability of metagenomic analyses of hairs in a forensic context. The three aims of the research reported here were to assess: whether human scalp and pubic hairs can be differentiated on the basis of their microbial composition, whether individuals can be differentiated on the basis of microbes colonising scalp and pubic hairs and whether bacterial profiles on hair shafts are stable over time," the researchers sad.
In the study, the scientists analysed the variety of microbes living on the hair of seven individuals — three men and four women — taken from both the scalp and the pubic region. In contrast to the scalp hair, the pubic hair harboured distinct communities of microbe, with around 73 different varieties in men and 76 varieties in women.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=solving,sex crimes,Forensic science,forensic development,DNA
Stay updated on the go with The Times of India's mobile apps. Click here to download it for your device.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
New development in forensic science for solving sex crimes
Dengan url
http://susucanglai.blogspot.com/2014/12/new-development-in-forensic-science-for.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
New development in forensic science for solving sex crimes
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
New development in forensic science for solving sex crimes
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar