Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Dec 30:(365):381-411.
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.365.5859.

Reviewing population studies for forensic purposes: Dog mitochondrial DNA

Sophie Verscheure  1 , Thierry Backeljau  2 , Stijn Desmyter  3
Affiliations
Review

Reviewing population studies for forensic purposes: Dog mitochondrial DNA

Sophie Verscheure et al. Zookeys. .

Abstract

The identification of dog hair through mtDNA analysis has become increasingly important in the last 15 years, as it can provide associative evidence connecting victims and suspects. The evidential value of an mtDNA match between dog hair and its potential donor is determined by the random match probability of the haplotype. This probability is based on the haplotype's population frequency estimate. Consequently, implementing a population study representative of the population relevant to the forensic case is vital to the correct evaluation of the evidence. This paper reviews numerous published dog mtDNA studies and shows that many of these studies vary widely in sampling strategies and data quality. Therefore, several features influencing the representativeness of a population sample are discussed. Moreover, recommendations are provided on how to set up a dog mtDNA population study and how to decide whether or not to include published data. This review emphasizes the need for improved dog mtDNA population data for forensic purposes, including targeting the entire mitochondrial genome. In particular, the creation of a publicly available database of qualitative dog mtDNA population studies would improve the genetic analysis of dog traces in forensic casework.

Keywords: Dog; Forensics; Mitochondrial DNA; Population study; Random match probability; Sampling strategy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Position of the control region and its subregions within the Kim et al. (1998) reference dog mitochondrial genome.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Impact of including maternally related dogs in population samples of 200 versus 1000 dogs on the estimation of the frequencies of rare haplotypes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Aaspõllu A, Kelve M. (2003) The first criminal case in Estonia with dog’s DNA data admitted as evidence. International Congress Series 1239: 847-851.
    1. Allen M, Engström AS, Meyers S, Handt O, Saldeen T, von Haeseler A, Pääbo S, Gyllensten U. (1998) Mitochondrial DNA sequencing of shed hairs and saliva on robbery caps: sensitivity and matching probabilities. Journal of Forensic Sciences 43: 453-464. - PubMed
    1. Angleby H, Savolainen P. (2005) Forensic informativity of domestic dog mtDNA control region sequences. Forensic Science International 154: 99-110. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.09.132 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ardalan A, Klütsch CF, Zhang AB, Erdogan M, Uhlén M, Houshmand M, Tepeli C, Ashtiani SR, Savolainen P. (2011) Comprehensive study of mtDNA among Southwest Asian dogs contradicts independent domestication of wolf, but implies dog-wolf hybridization. Ecology and Evolution 1: 373-385. doi: 10.1002/ece3.35 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bandelt HJ, Dür A. (2007) Translating DNA data tables into quasi-median networks for parsimony analysis and error detection. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 42: 256-271. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2006.07.013 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources