Interlaboratory Comparison of SpermX™ and Conventional Differential Extractions Indicated High Male DNA Recovery by the SpermX Method

• Published in: Forensic sciences (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 3; no. 4; pp. 592 - 610
• Main Authors: Sgueglia, Joanne B., Holt, Hailey, Hanson, Erin, Nichols, Justina, Kalafut, Tim, Khan, Mah-ro, Walsh, Thomas, Foley, Megan, Brown, Hiromi, Ballantyne, Jack, Sinha, Sudhir K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 01.12.2023
• Subjects: combined DNA Index System (CODIS); differential extraction; forensic DNA analysis; sexual assault kit (SAK); sperm DNA; STRmix
• ISSN: 2673-6756; 2673-6756
• DOI: 10.3390/forensicsci3040043

The National Institute of Justice reported that current methods for processing sexual assault samples have a high failure rate, with 60 to 80 percent of tested kits unable to produce usable DNA profiles. Even when samples test positive for male DNA, 34 percent of sexual assault kits (SAKs) do not yield recovered male DNA after differential extraction. Less than 30% recovery of available sperm DNA contributes to this low success rate. The SpermX™ method (SX) has been shown to recover 80 percent or more of sperm DNA from sexual assault samples. An interlaboratory evaluation compared SX to standard differential extraction (DE) protocols. Mock samples with known ratios of female epithelial cells and sperm cells were processed using both methods. Results revealed that SX consistently provided CODIS up-loadable DNA profiles, even with as few as 25 sperm cells, whereas DE failed to produce usable results. On average, SX yielded a seven-fold increase in the recovery of unshared male alleles compared to DE. In conclusion, SX outperformed DE in recovering higher quantities of male DNA with minimal female carryover in sexual assault-type samples. This improved success rate in obtaining usable DNA profiles can significantly aid in solving sexual assault cases.