Development of a Real-Time PCR-Based Method for Analyzing Semen-Specific Unmethylated DNA Regions and Methylation Status in Aged Body Fluid Stains.

The detection of semen in forensic investigation is considered important evidence of sexual assault. In this study, we report the development of a real-time polymerase chain reaction-based method for identifying semen that can simply and rapidly analyze the semen-specific unmethylated region of the DACT1 gene. Using two fluorescent probes designed for the methylated or unmethylated status, this method could perform quantitative analysis of the methylation status in this region. Furthermore, this method was used to analyze various body fluid samples, including 29-year-old semen and blood stains. The results showed that this method can detect almost exclusively semen or nonsemen signals even in highly decomposed samples, while a few semen or nonsemen samples showed slight signals of the other fluorescence probe. Although there is still a need for further analysis such as setting thresholds to analyze unknown samples, this method could be a useful supplementary tool for identifying semen, especially in old stains such as those in cold-case investigations.