However, no STR profile could be obtained on these hair roots. All hair roots containing any nuclei (n = 16), were submitted to STR analysis. Full STR profiles could be obtained on the 6 hair roots with more than 50 visible nuclei. Two hair roots containing 20–50 nuclei, (one of them collected from an adhesive tape), resulted in a full STR profile, while the other 2 resulted in a partial STR profile. From the 6 hair roots with less than 20 visible nuclei, 1 resulted in a full STR profile, 2 in a partial STR profile and the other 3 in no profile ( Table 3). For PCR however, only 30 μl of the 200 μl DNA extract is used, which could

provide an explanation for this observation. Using the proposed fast screening method, all hair roots containing any nuclei should be submitted Selleck Crizotinib to STR analysis. However, one needs to keep in mind that the success rate of STR analysis of hair roots collected from a crime scene could be lower than the observed experimental success rate as adverse environmental condition prior to collection could influence the results. In conclusion, a fast screening method using DAPI to stain nuclear DNA in hair roots collected at a crime scene can be used to predict STR analysis success. This non-destructive,

quick and inexpensive screening method which does not require an Neratinib cost incubation time, allows the forensic DNA laboratory to analyze only the most promising hair roots, containing any nuclei. Therefore, judiciary costs can be reduced. This research was funded by a Ph.D. grant from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT Vlaanderen, Belgium093092), awarded to Trees Lepez, and by a postdoctoral grant from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO01E15712), awarded to Mado Vandewoestyne. The authors would like to thank the lab technicians Selleck Ixazomib of the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

for the sample collection and for their excellent technical support. “
“The PowerPlex® ESI and ESX Systems were launched in 2009 to accommodate the requirements for next-generation STR genotyping systems for Europe [1], [2] and [3]. The PowerPlex® ESI configuration was designed with six of the seven ESS loci (all but D21S11) along with D16S539 and D19S433 as smaller amplicons (<250 bp), while the five new loci were left as larger amplicons [4] and [5]. The PowerPlex® ESX configuration was designed with the five new loci as smaller amplicons [6]. Both multiplex configurations were designed with and without the SE33 locus as 17 and 16 plexes, respectively [4], [5] and [6]. Direct amplification of samples (e.g., blood or buccal cells on a solid support such as FTA® (GE Healthcare/Whatman, Maidstone, UK) or nonFTA cards or buccal swabs) has become popular in recent years because it eliminates the need to purify DNA samples, thereby saving time and the added expense of the DNA purification reagents.