SHORT TANDEM REPEAT TYPING OF BODIES FROM A MASS DISASTER - HIGH SUCCESS RATE AND CHARACTERISTIC AMPLIFICATION PATTERNS IN HIGHLY DEGRADED SAMPLES

We have used a PCR-based DNA-typing method, involving the coamplificat ion of Sour tetrameric short tandem repeat loci, in the analysis of a large number of severely degraded tissue samples taken from the scene of a mass disaster in which bodies were exposed to extreme thermal, ph ysical ann chemical insult. Analysis of the amplified DNA in a number of the samples revealed uniquely sized artifact PCR products resulting from the amplification of degraded genomic DNA as well as characteris tic patterns in the amounts of PCR products generated from differently sized loci. This system has proved to be very reliable and robust, an d we were successful in typing all of the four loci in 66% of the samp les tested and at least one locus in 83% of the cases. A PCR-based sex test also proved to be very effective when applied to the degraded sa mples.