Forensic DNA phenotyping; Current updates and future prospects
Keywords:
Forensic DNA phenotyping, Externally visible characteristics, Genetic markers, Short tandem repeats, Single nucleotide polymorphisms, criminal identificationAbstract
Forensic DNA phenotyping refers to the prediction of externally visible characteristics such as hair, eye and skin color from the DNA source collected from the scene of crime. Unknown suspects can be traced with the help of this technique employing the ‘biological witness’. Traditional forensic methods exercise short tandem repeats (STRs) approaches to connect the offender with crime. However, proceedings of a forensic case may be delayed if there is a mismatch (anonymous offender) or lack of database hits, and it becomes arduous for a forensic lab to make the suspect pool narrower. A plenty of research has been done on alternative methods to apprehend the suspect. FDP deploying various powerful techniques for prediction of phenotype from the genotype has gained an excessive attention in past few years. Till now, many genetic markers have been identified and validated for skin color, hair color, eye color, facial features, age estimation etc. and many more to be added in the existing databases to make the effectualness of this technique more reliable. This review examines the current updates and future prospects of this project. Given the robustness of modern technologies, FDP has exceptional flair to meet the standards of forensic investigations and identifications
Key Words: Forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP), Externally visible characteristics (EVCs), Genetic markers, Short tandem repeats (STRs), Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), Suspect identification.
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