DNA analyses of the remains of the Prince Branciforte Barresi family

The five skeletons found buried in the church of Militello di Catania, Sici ly, were tentatively identified by morphological analysis and historical re ports as the remains of Prince Branciforte Barresi, two of his children, hi s brother and another juvenile member of the family (sixteenth and seventee nth centuries). In order to attempt to clarify the degree of relationships of the five skeletons, sex testing and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence a nalysis of the hypervariable segments I and II (HV1 and HV2) of control reg ion were performed. Moreover, the 9 bp-deletion marker of region V (COII/tR NA (lys)) was examined. Molecular genetic analyses were consistent with his torical expectations, although they did not directly demonstrate that these are in fact the remains of the Prince and his relatives, due to the imposs ibility of obtaining DNA from living maternal relatives of the Prince.