Document Title: the Determination of the Physical Characteristics of an Individual from Biological Stains Author: Jack Ballantyne, Ph.D
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The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: The Determination Of The Physical Characteristics Of An Individual From Biological Stains Author: Jack Ballantyne, Ph.D. Document No.: 223978 Date Received: September 2008 Award Number: 2005-MU-BX-K075 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. THE DETERMINATION OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INDIVIDUAL FROM BIOLOGICAL STAINS FINAL REPORT January 16 2007 Department of Justice, National Institute of Justcie Award Number: 2005-MU-BX-K075 (1 September 2005- 31 December 2007) Principal Investigator: Jack Ballantyne, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Chemistry Associate Director for Research National Center for Forensic Science 4000 Central Boulevard, Bldg#5 University of Central Florida Orlando, FL 32816-2366 Phone: (407) 823 4440 Fax: (407) 823 2252 e-mail: [email protected] This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. It is now a matter of routine for the forensic scientist to obtain the genetic profile of an individual from DNA recovered from a biological stain deposited at a crime scene. Potential contributors of the stain must either be known to investigators (i.e. a developed suspect) or the questioned profile must be searched against a database of DNA profiles such as those maintained in the CODIS National DNA database. However, in those instances where there is no developed suspect and no match is obtained after interrogation of appropriate DNA databases, the DNA profile per se presently provides no meaningful information to investigators, with the notable exception of gender determination. In these situations it would be advantageous to the investigation, if additional probative information could be obtained from the biological stain. A useful biometric that could provide important probative information, and one that may be amenable to molecular genetic analysis, is the biological age of an individual. The ability to provide investigators with information as to whether a DNA donor is a newborn, infant, toddler, child, adolescent, adult, middle-aged or elderly individual could be useful in certain cases, particularly those involving young children such as kidnappings or in providing additional intelligence during terrorist investigations. Currently no validated molecular assays exist for age determination. 2. In the the work described herein we investigated whether determination of an individual’s age is feasible in dried physiological stains. We sought to identify a number of potential RNA ‘molecular clocks’ that could provide investigators with information as to whether a DNA donor is a newborn, infant, toddler, child, adolescent, adult, middle-aged individual or old-aged 2 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. individual. The strategy was to identify genes that are differentially expressed (at the RNA level) during the various phases of human development. Also, since progressive reduction in telomere length in somatic tissues appears to be correlated with the ‘biological age’ of the cell we examined whether such telomere length changes were detectable in dried bloodstains. 3. The specific aims of the project were as follows: Aim 1. To identify and develop sensitive assays for genes which are expressed in an age- specific manner in dried physiological stains. Aim 1A Identify human developmentally-regulated genes that are expressed at the RNA level in blood and/or saliva in an age specific manner Aim 1B Determine the abundance, stability and persistence of candidate genes identified in 1A in dried physiological stains Aim 1C Develop rapid, quantitative assays for the genes identified in 1A and 1B Aim 2. To develop sensitive assays for the determination of telomere length and to correlate the length with age using material extracted from dried physiological stains. Aim 2A Apply TRF-Southern blot technique and STELA to forensic type samples for comparison with qPCR methods Aim 2B Develop rapid and sensitive real time PCR assays for the determination of telomere length Aim 2C Using the assays developed, correlate telomere length with age in samples taken from dried biological stains 3 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. 4. We screened 319 potential age specific mRNA biomarkers (messenger RNA transcripts) and identified 7 that appeared to be expressed in an age-dependent in dried bloodstains for human biological age determination. These include: a. HBG1n1 (expressed at elevated levels in newborns). b. HBG1n2 (expressed at elevated levels in newborns). c. HBG2n2 (expressed at elevated levels in newborns). d. HBG2n3 (expressed at elevated levels in newborns). e. HBE1 (expressed at elevated levels in newborns). f. COL1A2 (expressed at elevated levels in younger individuals (<12 years)) g. IGFBP3 (expressed at elevated levels in post-pubertal individuals (>12 years)). 5. Duplex real-time PCR assays were designed and developed for two of the newborn-specific biomarkers (HBG1n1 and HBG2n3) that incorporate a housekeeping gene (the ribosomal protein S15) as an internal positive control (IPC). Individual qRT-PCR assays were developed to measure both of these transcripts in forensic specimens. Adjustment of the primer concentrations in the qRT-PCR reaction permitted the establishment of two temporally delimited assays, one of which was specific to blood from newborns 4-months or under (≤4 months) and the other to newborns who were hours old (<24 hours). Both assays may be useful in a variety of child kidnapping, assault and criminal abortion investigations with the latter (<24 hours) being of particular use for those cases involving hospital abductions. A series of specificity performance checks carried out on the qRT-PCR assays revealed that the HBG(1/2)n transcripts appear to be restricted to blood from newborns in the human (or at least, primate) lineage. The assays appear to be sensitive and robust enough for forensic use in that only a few cell equivalents of total 4 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. RNA are required (i.e. 50 pg) and >100ng of total RNA is recoverable from typical sized (50-μl) bloodstains. The sensitivity of the assay is thus 50-500 cells assuming 0.1-1.0 pg total RNA per cell. The newborn blood-specific transcripts were detectable at least up to 15 months in the dried state. 6. A triplex real-time PCR assay has been designed and developed for two other age specific biomarkers (COL1A2 and IGFBP3) that also includes the housekeeping gene S15. The conditions of the assay are such that the relative expression of these three transcripts differs in an age dependent manner. Consequently the triplex qRT-PCR assay can be used to categorize bloodstain donors as likely originating from an individual belonging to one of four different age classes, namely 1 hour-3 months, 4 months-4 years, 5 -18 years and > 18 years. The triplex appears to have a high level of species specificity being confined to primates. The assay appears to be sensitive and robust enough for forensic use in that as little as 3 ng of input DNA can be used. The assay can be used to predict the bloodstain donor’s age in stains left at room temperature for up to 18 months. 7. We were unable to demonstrate a correlation between telomere length and age in dried bloodstains using a variety of different analytical approaches. 5 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. ABSTRACT The ability to determine the physical characteristics of an individual depositing a bloodstain at a crime scene would be an invaluable tool to investigators, akin to eyewitness information. One useful biometric that may be amenable to molecular genetic analysis is the biological age of an individual. In theory it may be possible to determine patterns of gene expression that are age-specific thus permitting the distinction between tissue sample originating from a individuals of different ages (e.g. newborn, adolescent, middle-age or elderly). We have discovered two novel isoforms of gamma hemoglobin messenger RNA, designated HBG1n and HBG2n, which exhibit an extremely restricted pattern of gene expression, being confined to newborn individuals. Multiplex qRT-PCR assays incorporating these novel mRNAs have been designed, tested and evaluated for their potential forensic use.