Development of Y-STR genotyping systems suitable for sexual assault cases in South Africa

Magister Scientiae - MScSexual assault is a significant problem facing the South African society. In this context, efficient but also affordable genotyping systems are needed for positive identification of criminals in incidences of sexual violence. The aim of this study was therefore to develop non-commercial Y-STR genotyping systems suitable for sexual assault cases in South Africa. Y-chromosome STR loci constituting the minimal haplotype are still the most widely used loci in investigating sexual assault cases despite the fact that DYS391 and DYS392 have shown low levels of polymorphism in Xhosa populations in Cape Town. The minimal haplotype was, therefore, further investigated in the Cape Muslim population. The Cape Muslim population generally exhibited high GD values among all the South African populations. These values were higher than 0.5 for most loci, and ranged from 0.447 for DYS391 to 0.957 for DYS385. The highest number of alleles in most loci was also recorded in this population. The overall assessment of the minimal haplotype has shown that this system is still a useful in investigating sexual assault case in many South African subpopulations. Therefore the exercise of internal validation of the minimal haplotype system was successfully carried out in the laboratory. The properties of additional novel and widely used STRs were also investigated in this study. Loci were successfully sequenced and allele nomenclature was assigned to them according to the ISFG guidelines.South Afric

Where is the game? Wild meat products authentication in South Africa: a case study

Wild animals’ meat is extensively consumed in South Africa, being obtained either from ranching, farming or hunting. To test the authenticity of the commercial labels of meat products in the local market, we obtained DNA sequence information from 146 samples (14 beef and 132 game labels) for barcoding cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and partial cytochrome b and mitochondrial fragments. The reliability of species assignments were evaluated using BLAST searches in GenBank, maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis and the characterbased method implemented in BLOG. The Kimura-2-parameter intra- and interspecific variation was evaluated for all matched speciesFil: D'Amato, Maria Eugenia. University of Hull. Departament of Biological Sciences; Reino Unido; University of the Western Cape. Forensic DNA Laboratory. Biotechnology Department; Sudáfrica; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay; Argentina;Fil: Alechine, Evguenia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Servicio de Huellas Digitales Genéticas; Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay; Argentina;Fil: Cloete, Kevin Wesley. University of the Western Cape. Forensic DNA Laboratory. Biotechnology Department; Sudáfrica;Fil: Davison, Sean. University of the Western Cape. Forensic DNA Laboratory. Biotechnology Department; Sudáfrica;Fil: Corach, Daniel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Servicio de Huellas Digitales Genéticas; Argentina

The Scientific Investigation of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Using Multimodal Ground-based Observatories

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

GlobalFiler Express DNA amplification kit in South Africa: Extracting the past from the present

In this study, the GlobalFiler Express amplification kit was evaluated for forensic use in 541 South African individuals belonging to the Afrikaaner, amaXhosa,1 amaZulu,1 Asian Indian and Coloured population groups. Allelic frequencies, genetic diversity parameters and forensic informative metrics were calculated for each population. A total of 301 alleles were observed ranging between 5 and 44.2 repeat units, 43 were rarely observed partial repeats and seven were novel. The combined match probability (CMP) ranged from 2.21x10 (Coloured) to 5.21x10 (AmaZulu), and the combined power of exclusion (CPE) 0.9999999978 (Afrikaaner) to 0.99999999979 (AmaZulu) respectively. No significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) were observed after Bonferroni correction. Strong evidence of genetic structure was detected using the coancestry coefficient? Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) and an unsupervised Bayesian clustering method (STRUCTURE). The efficiency of assignment of individuals to population groups was evaluated by applying likelihood ratios with WHICHRUN, and the individual ancestral membership probabilities inferred by STRUCTURE. Likelihood ratios performed the best in the assignment of individuals to population groups. Signs of positive selection were detected for TH01 and D13S317 and purifying/balancing selection for locus SE33. These three loci also displayed the largest informativeness for assignment (In) values. The results of this study supports the use of the GlobalFiler STR profiling kit for forensic applications in South Africa with the additional capability to predict ethnicity or continental origin of a random sample.IS