Degenerate Oligonucleotide Primed - Polymerase Chain Reaction Evaluation And Optimization To Improve Downstream Forensic STR Analysis Of Low Quality/Low Quantity DNA

When forensic biological samples yield low quality/low quantity DNA, thecurrent STR analysis methods do not generate acceptable profiles. Whole genomeamplification can be used to pre-amplify the entire genome for downstream analyses. A commercially available kit for DOP-PCR, a form of WGA, is currently being used in the clinical for downstream single locus targets. Forensic analyses utilize a multiplex amplification. This study determined that the "home brew" created by our lab performs the same as the commercially available kit. Future optimization studies of DOP-PCR can utilize this "home brew". Additionally, this research determined that a 10 second increase in electrokinetic injection time onto the Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) in combination with a post-STR amplification purification and elution into formamide produces a slightly higher percent STR allele success over the standard protocol. After future optimization studies, this may be a useful method to obtain more accurate and complete STR profiles from low quality/low quantity biological samples.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Forensic Science and Biology

Year dc:date.available

2006

Author dc:creator

• Thompson, Lindsay Paige

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Tracey Dawson Cruz

• formamide
• Capillary Electrophoresis
• genome
• DOP-PCR
• multiplex amplification
• Biology
• Life Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/1299

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-2298