The identification of bodily fluids and tissues is often applied to criminal investigations to clarify events that may or may not have taken place. Current forensic techniques can identify blood, saliva, seminal fluid, and spermatozoa, but there is a clear absence of reliable testing to identify vaginal epithelial tissue. Though there are serological tests available for this purpose, tissue-specific methylation markers have recently been investigated as a candidate for the identification of blood, saliva, and spermatozoa.
In this study, tissue-specific methylation markers were analyzed to identify a set of markers for the differentiation of vaginal fluid from blood, saliva, and semen. From the four tissue types collected, genomic DNA was extracted, quantitated, and bisulfite-modified to preserve the methylation information. Candidate markers were amplified then pyrosequenced to determine the percent methylation of specific CpG sites. The level of significance between tissues was determined using one way ANOVA Tukey’s posthoc test by SPSS statistical package.
Three markers, cg4739647, cg6266993, and cg9323727 were found to be hypermethylated in vaginal fluid compared to blood, saliva, and semen. The differences between methylation levels at nearly all analyzed CpG sites were found to be significant, suggesting that these markers may be used to identify vaginal epithelial tissue for forensic purposes. Pyrosequencing has several advantages over conventional serological analysis, and the development of a multiplex kit using these markers will aid in the conservation of precious DNA samples that can be used for other forensic purposes.
","abstract_html":"<p>The identification of bodily fluids and tissues is often applied to criminal investigations to clarify events that may or may not have taken place. Current forensic techniques can identify blood, saliva, seminal fluid, and spermatozoa, but there is a clear absence of reliable testing to identify vaginal epithelial tissue. Though there are serological tests available for this purpose, tissue-specific methylation markers have recently been investigated as a candidate for the identification of blood, saliva, and spermatozoa.</p> <p>In this study, tissue-specific methylation markers were analyzed to identify a set of markers for the differentiation of vaginal fluid from blood, saliva, and semen. From the four tissue types collected, genomic DNA was extracted, quantitated, and bisulfite-modified to preserve the methylation information. Candidate markers were amplified then pyrosequenced to determine the percent methylation of specific CpG sites. The level of significance between tissues was determined using one way ANOVA Tukey’s posthoc test by SPSS statistical package.</p> <p>Three markers, cg4739647, cg6266993, and cg9323727 were found to be hypermethylated in vaginal fluid compared to blood, saliva, and semen. The differences between methylation levels at nearly all analyzed CpG sites were found to be significant, suggesting that these markers may be used to identify vaginal epithelial tissue for forensic purposes. Pyrosequencing has several advantages over conventional serological analysis, and the development of a multiplex kit using these markers will aid in the conservation of precious DNA samples that can be used for other forensic purposes.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Pood, Elise"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kuppareddi Balamurugan","Philip Carlan","Dean Bertram"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2019-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:12Z","subjects":["DNA","methylation","pyrosequencing","vaginal epithelial","tissue-specific","forensic","Biology","Genetics and Genomics"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/641","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Kuppareddi Balamurugan","Philip Carlan","Dean Bertram"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Pood, Elise"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-03-27T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["DNA","methylation","pyrosequencing","vaginal epithelial","tissue-specific","forensic","Biology","Genetics and Genomics"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/641"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The identification of bodily fluids and tissues is often applied to criminal investigations to clarify events that may or may not have taken place. Current forensic techniques can identify blood, saliva, seminal fluid, and spermatozoa, but there is a clear absence of reliable testing to identify vaginal epithelial tissue. Though there are serological tests available for this purpose, tissue-specific methylation markers have recently been investigated as a candidate for the identification of blood, saliva, and spermatozoa.
In this study, tissue-specific methylation markers were analyzed to identify a set of markers for the differentiation of vaginal fluid from blood, saliva, and semen. From the four tissue types collected, genomic DNA was extracted, quantitated, and bisulfite-modified to preserve the methylation information. Candidate markers were amplified then pyrosequenced to determine the percent methylation of specific CpG sites. The level of significance between tissues was determined using one way ANOVA Tukey’s posthoc test by SPSS statistical package.
Three markers, cg4739647, cg6266993, and cg9323727 were found to be hypermethylated in vaginal fluid compared to blood, saliva, and semen. The differences between methylation levels at nearly all analyzed CpG sites were found to be significant, suggesting that these markers may be used to identify vaginal epithelial tissue for forensic purposes. Pyrosequencing has several advantages over conventional serological analysis, and the development of a multiplex kit using these markers will aid in the conservation of precious DNA samples that can be used for other forensic purposes.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Methylation-Specific Differentiation of Vaginal Epithelial Cells for Forensic Tissue Typing by Bisulfite Conversion and Pyrosequencing"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Kuppareddi Balamurugan","Philip Carlan","Dean Bertram"],"dc:creator":["Pood, Elise"],"dc:date.available":["2019-03-27T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The identification of bodily fluids and tissues is often applied to criminal investigations to clarify events that may or may not have taken place. Current forensic techniques can identify blood, saliva, seminal fluid, and spermatozoa, but there is a clear absence of reliable testing to identify vaginal epithelial tissue. Though there are serological tests available for this purpose, tissue-specific methylation markers have recently been investigated as a candidate for the identification of blood, saliva, and spermatozoa.
In this study, tissue-specific methylation markers were analyzed to identify a set of markers for the differentiation of vaginal fluid from blood, saliva, and semen. From the four tissue types collected, genomic DNA was extracted, quantitated, and bisulfite-modified to preserve the methylation information. Candidate markers were amplified then pyrosequenced to determine the percent methylation of specific CpG sites. The level of significance between tissues was determined using one way ANOVA Tukey’s posthoc test by SPSS statistical package.
Three markers, cg4739647, cg6266993, and cg9323727 were found to be hypermethylated in vaginal fluid compared to blood, saliva, and semen. The differences between methylation levels at nearly all analyzed CpG sites were found to be significant, suggesting that these markers may be used to identify vaginal epithelial tissue for forensic purposes. Pyrosequencing has several advantages over conventional serological analysis, and the development of a multiplex kit using these markers will aid in the conservation of precious DNA samples that can be used for other forensic purposes.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/641"],"dc:subject":["DNA","methylation","pyrosequencing","vaginal epithelial","tissue-specific","forensic","Biology","Genetics and Genomics"],"dc:title":["Methylation-Specific Differentiation of Vaginal Epithelial Cells for Forensic Tissue Typing by Bisulfite Conversion and Pyrosequencing"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science (MS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:12Z"}