Analysis of Mitochondrial Control Region Using Sanger Sequencing.

The analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is an established forensic tool and has been used extensively to aid with both the identification of human remains and evidence recovered from scenes of crime. The biology of mtDNA confers both advantages and disadvantages when using it as a tool for identification. It benefits from a high copy number, which facilitates analysis from samples with highly degraded DNA or trace amounts of DNA, but the maternal mode of inheritance restricts its power of discrimination. With Next Generation Sequencing being used in research and some forensic casework laboratories the scope of mtDNA analysis in forensic casework may expand in the near future. Currently, however, most casework laboratories rely on Sanger sequencing and an established method for analyzing the hypervariable sequence regions is described.