A simple and cost-effective method for preparing DNA from the hard tooth tissue, and its use in polymerase chain reaction amplification of amelogenin gene segment for sex determination in an Indian population

• Published in: Forensic science international Vol. 110; no. 2; pp. 107 - 115
• Main Authors: Sivagami, A.V, Rao, A.Rajeswara, Varshney, U
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ireland Ltd 15.05.2000; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; AMEL; Amelogenin; Amplification; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Dental Enamel Proteins - genetics; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA - analysis; DNA - genetics; Ethanol; Female; Females; Forensic Medicine; Forensic science; Gender; Gene Amplification; Genes; Genetic testing; Human remains; Humans; India; Male; Males; Medical sciences; Methods; Middle Aged; Phenols; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Population studies; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Reproducibility of Results; Sex; Sex determination; Sex Determination Analysis; Teeth; Tooth; Tooth - chemistry; Tooth - metabolism; Tooth Germ - chemistry; Tooth Germ - metabolism; Ultrasonics; White people; Y chromosomes; Asia; India; United States > US; Tooth; Amelogenin; Sex determination; AMEL; Legal medicine; Use; Sex; Determination; Method; Polymerase chain reaction; Tissue; Gene; DNA; Genetics; Extraction; Cost efficiency analysis
• ISSN: 0379-0738; 1872-6283
• DOI: 10.1016/S0379-0738(00)00155-9

The use of teeth as an important resource in the analysis of forensic case history by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or other related methods has been reported. However, a major drawback in using teeth has been that the DNA is present only in trace amounts, and the methods to recover DNA from the flinty material have not been efficient or cost effective. In this report, we describe a method to prepare DNA from the hard tooth tissues. Our studies show that ultrasonication of teeth samples yields sufficient amounts of good quality DNA useful for PCR-based diagnostic methods. The teeth could serve as a reliable source of DNA for amplification-based forensic methods in sex determination. DNA could be obtained from any tooth, regardless of the age of subject. Furthermore, by using the AMEL gene-based primers in PCR, we have shown that the AMEL gene serves as a good marker for sex determination in the Indian population. In our study, the PCR-based method was sensitive and proved to be successful for sex determination with a complete specificity.