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Erschienen in: International Journal of Legal Medicine 6/2020

08.04.2020 | Original Article

Identification of spermatozoa using a novel 3-plex MSRE-PCR assay for forensic examination of sexual assaults

verfasst von: Kuo-Lan Liu, Li-Chin Tsai, Yu-Chih Lin, Nu-En Huang, Lih-Jing Yang, Chih-Wen Su, James Chun-I Lee, Adrian Linacre, Hsing-Mei Hsieh

Erschienen in: International Journal of Legal Medicine | Ausgabe 6/2020

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Abstract

Identification of semen and then spermatozoa is essential to verify that sexual activity has occurred in alleged cases of sexual assault. Microscopic examination commonly used for spermatozoa identification is however time-consuming and can often lead to false-negative results for samples with deformed and, or, limited number of spermatozoa. To address this limitation, we report on a novel 3-plex MSRE-PCR (methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme-PCR) assay to specifically identify spermatozoa. This assay is comprised of 3 markers: a digestive control marker (DC), sperm-specific marker (SP), and Y chromosome marker (SRY). A total of 214 samples from 10 body fluids or tissues were analyzed. Specificity testing showed that all the normal semen samples were unambiguously identified as being sperm-positive, and no other body fluid (or tissues) showed a sperm-specific signal in the electropherogram. Testing for sensitivity showed that 0.1 ng of DNA from a semen extract was sufficient to identify the presence of spermatozoa by this assay. Mixture analyses illustrated the sensitivity of the assay when the vaginal/semen DNA ratio (80/0.1) was under 800 or the menstrual blood/semen DNA ratio (5/0.1) was under 50, the trace amounts (approximately 0.1 ng) of DNA from semen can still be identified by this 3-plex MSRE-PCR assay. This assay was also applied to the identification of 31 non-probative forensic samples from 18 sexual assault cases. The case studies showed that the 3-plex MSRE-PCR assay was an improvement in the sensitivity of spermatozoa detection.
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Metadaten
Titel
Identification of spermatozoa using a novel 3-plex MSRE-PCR assay for forensic examination of sexual assaults
verfasst von
Kuo-Lan Liu
Li-Chin Tsai
Yu-Chih Lin
Nu-En Huang
Lih-Jing Yang
Chih-Wen Su
James Chun-I Lee
Adrian Linacre
Hsing-Mei Hsieh
Publikationsdatum
08.04.2020
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erschienen in
International Journal of Legal Medicine / Ausgabe 6/2020
Print ISSN: 0937-9827
Elektronische ISSN: 1437-1596
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02285-1

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