Honors Program
Date of this Version
5-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Citation
DeAngelis, V. (2024). The Efficacy of Collection Methods for DNA Profiling from Bitten Food. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Abstract
Bitten food found at crime scenes may contain genetic information that can be used to generate a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profile. The aim of this paper is to determine the most efficient collection method for collecting DNA from forensically significant food substrates. In this study, a saliva cell suspension of known DNA quantity was deposited on apples, bananas, and bread, collected using both swabbing and cutting collection methods, and then analyzed for DNA quantity and quality. The results underlined that different substrate types have different collection methods and materials that are more effective in obtaining typable DNA evidence. Apples and bananas were found to yield better DNA profiles with the swabbing collection method whereas bread was more successful with the cutting collection method. The bitten food substrates, consequently, yielded a high percentage of matching short tandem repeat (STR) loci since the collection method used was previously determined to optimize DNA recovery from such substrates, ensuring efficient extraction techniques.
Comments
Copyright Victoria DeAngelis 2024.