FORENSIC APPLICATIONS OF MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA

Human mitochondrial DNA has become a useful tool in forensic investiga tions. Its polymorphic nature and maternal inheritance are characteris tics that have, combined with its sequence information, enabled invest igators to identify missing persons, war casualties and individuals in volved in mass disasters and criminal cases. Various screening procedu res have been developed to reduce the need to sequence samples that do not match, but DNA-sequence information is still necessary to verify a match. Even though several challenges remain before mitochondrial-DN A-sequence information can be used unambiguously, comparative mitochon drial-DNA-sequence analysis appears to be a reliable and powerful mean s for human identification.