Kinship testing is widely needed in forensic science practice. This paper reviews the definitions of common concepts, and summarizes the basic principles, advantages and disadvantages, and application scope of kinship analysis methods, including identity by state (IBS) method, likelihood ratio (LR) method, method of moment (MoM), and identity by descent (IBD) segment method. This paper also discusses the research hotspots of challenging kinship testing, complex kinship testing, forensic genetic genealogy analysis, and non-human biological samples.
DNA Fingerprinting ; Forensic Genetics/methods* ; Forensic Sciences ; Pedigree ; Humans

With the improvement of DNA methylation detection techniques, studies on age-related methylation sites have found more age-specific ones across tissues, which improves the sensitivity and accuracy of age estimation. In addition, the establishment of various statistical models also provides a new direction for the age estimation of tissues from different sources. This review summarizes the related studies of age estimation based on DNA methylation from the aspects of detection technology, age-related cytosine phosphate guanine site and model selection in recent years.
DNA Methylation ; Forensic Genetics/methods* ; CpG Islands ; Forensic Medicine

As an important anthropometric characteristic, human height not only contributes to the recognition of other anthropological characteristics and genetic risk factors, but also is an important part of forensic DNA phenotyping studies. Accurate estimation of height can provide more complete information about the phenotype of suspects and provide help to solve cases. In recent years, having benefited from the rapid development of molecular biological techniques and bioinformatics, height-related genetics research has made some progress. This paper describes the research progress of human height estimation from the genetic variation and the epigenetic inheritance perspectives and looks into the future research direction.
Humans ; Phenotype ; DNA/genetics* ; Molecular Biology ; Forensic Genetics/methods*

In criminal investigations, postmortem interval (PMI) is important information to be inferred in homicide investigations, as well as the focus and the difficulty in forensic pathology research. Because the DNA content in different tissues is relatively constant and shows changes regularly with the extension of PMI, it has become a research hotspot of PMI estimation. This paper reviews the recent progress of PMI estimation technologies including DNA-based single cell gel electrophoresis, image analysis, flow cytometry, real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing, hoping to provide references for forensic medicine practice and scientific research.
Humans ; Postmortem Changes ; Autopsy/methods* ; DNA/genetics* ; Forensic Medicine ; Forensic Pathology

In forensic physical evidence identification, the accurate identification of the individual origin and their body fluid composition of the biological samples obtained from the crime scene play a critical role in determining the nature of a crime. In recent years, RNA profiling has become one of the fastest developing methods for body fluids identification. Due to the characteristics of tissue or body fluid specific expression, various types of RNA markers have been proven to be promising candidate markers for body fluids identification in previous studies. This review summarizes the research progress of RNA markers in body fluids identification, including the RNA markers that have been effectively verified in current research and their advantages and disadvantages. Meanwhile, this review prospects the application of RNA markers in forensic medicine.
Forensic Medicine/methods* ; Body Fluids/chemistry* ; RNA/analysis* ; Feces ; Forensic Genetics ; Semen/chemistry* ; Saliva/chemistry*

OBJECTIVE: To establish a new method of SNP typing. METHODS: Based on the principle of allele specific PCR and capillary electrophoresis technique, 11 diallelic SNP loci were selected and two forward primers with different length were designed for each SNP, with their 3' ends matched to the two alleles, respectively. An artificially mismatched base was also introduced into the third or fourth base in the 3' end area of the two forward primers in order to enhance the specificity of amplification. A common reverse primer was designed 100-300 bp away from the forward primers, and labeled with fluorescence. The PCR products were separated and analyzed by ABI Prism 310 Genetic Analyzer after all of the 11 SNPs were multiply amplified. RESULTS: A single product peak was observed while the SNP was homozygous, and two product peaks with different height were observed while the SNP was heterozygous. The length of PCR products was different with the different SNPs. According to the length of the products and the number of the product peaks, the genotypes of the 11 SNPs can simultaneously be analyzed, and the results were in accordance with the direct sequencing. CONCLUSION Fragment length discrepant allele specific fluorescence labeled multi-PCR (FLDASFLM-PCR) is a simple, rapid and efficient new method for SNP typing.
Alleles ; Electrophoresis, Capillary/methods* ; Forensic Genetics ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods* ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/genetics*

Since the foundation of FBI laboratory's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) a decade ago, the 13 CODIS STR loci of the system as well as the recently developed Penta D, Penta E, D2S1338 and D19S433 loci have been widely used by kinship testing laboratories worldwide and have played an important role in the field of Kinship Testing and in construction of criminal database. This article systemically analyzed the characteristics of STR loci information and its genomic information analyzed through search of a variety of database including Webof Knowledge, Elsevier and Internet resources. The up-to-date application of the commonly used STR loci in recent years is also reviewed.
Family ; Forensic Genetics/methods* ; Humans ; Microsatellite Repeats/genetics* ; Paternity ; Polymorphism, Genetic/genetics*

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) is a new molecular marker to detect genomic polymorphism. This new technology has advantages of high resolution, good stability, and reproducibility. Great achievements have been derived in recent years in AFLP related technologies with several AFLP expanded methodologies available. AFLP technology has been widely used in the fields of plant, animal, and microbes. It has become one of the hotspots in Forensic Botany. This review focuses on the recent advances of AFLP and its applications in forensic biology.
Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis/trends* ; Botany/methods* ; DNA, Plant/genetics* ; Forensic Genetics ; Plants/genetics*

Forensic DNA phenotyping （FDP） analysis uses DNA from biological samples left in crime scenes to predict individual phenotypic traits, such as geographical origin of ethnic group, height, weight, skin color, hair color and shape, iris color, male baldness, facial morphology, age, etc., thereby providing clues for case investigations. Among these traits, features of facial morphology are relatively more complicated. This paper makes an overall analysis of the measurement and collection of facial morphology, research on facial morphology related genes, forensic application and establishment of facial morphology depiction model, ethical issues, etc., then summarizes the latest research progress on features of facial morphology.
DNA/genetics* ; Face ; Forensic Genetics/methods* ; Humans ; Male ; Phenotype ; Physical Appearance, Body/genetics*

Objective To predict the pigmentation phenotypes of Chinese populations from different language families, analyze the differences and provide reference data for forensic anthropology and genetics. Methods The HIrisPlex-S multiplex amplification system with 41 loci related to pigmentation phenotypes was constructed in the laboratory, and 2 666 DNA samples of adult males of 17 populations from six language families, including Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Altaic, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai and Austro-Asiatic language families distributed in different regions of China were genotyped. The pigmentation phenotype category of each individual was predicted using the online prediction system （https://HIrisPlex.erasmusmc.nl/）, and then the output data were statistically analyzed. Results About 1.92% of the individuals of Asian-European admixed populations from Indo-European and Altaic language families had blue eyes and 34.29% had brown or gold hair. The phenotypes of the color of eyes and hair of other populations had no significant difference, all individuals had brown eyes and black hair. There were differences in skin color of populations of different language families and geographical areas. The Indo-European language family had the lightest skin color, and the Austro-Asiatic language family had the darkest skin color; the southwestern minority populations had a darker skin color than populations in the plain areas. Conclusion The prediction results of pigmentation phenotype of Chinese populations are consistent with the perception of the appearance of each population, proving the reliability of the system. The color of eyes and hair are mainly related to ancestral components, while the skin color shows the differences between language families, and is closely related to geographical distribution of populations.
Adult ; Asian People/genetics* ; China ; Eye Color/genetics* ; Forensic Anthropology ; Forensic Genetics/methods* ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Phenotype ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Reproducibility of Results ; Skin Pigmentation/genetics*