Effect of Degradation on PCR Based DNA Typing

Abstract

In almost 50% of all cases, DNA extracted from forensic evidence turns out to be either not enough to be tested for molecular weight or severely degraded (Perlee and Balasz 1993). Using DNA polymorphisms with short alleles and the PCR approach it is possible to achieve results from minimal amounts of DNA and degraded samples. But, as has been described e.g. by Reynolds et al. (1993) for D1S80, the degradation can lead to dubious or even wrong typing results through causing preferential or sole amplification of the smaller allele.