Forensic Genomics

Dear Colleagues,

Although being a conservative field per se due to serving law enforcement, forensic genetics is slowly transitioning into forensic genomics. With this Special Issue of Genes, we acknowledge and appreciate this rather recent development. Genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic principles, data, and technologies are applied to identify and analyse useful DNA and RNA markers to address various forensic questions that cannot be answered, or only in a limited way, via genetic or other approaches. Human genome data produced with SNP microarray technologies, and increasingly whole exome and whole genome data established via massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technologies, are used to identify DNA markers for individual identification, as well as for appearance and ancestry prediction. The latter is forensically relevant for finding unknown perpetrators of crime who are unidentifiable with standard DNA profiling. Human transcriptome data of various tissues generated with expression microarray technologies, and increasingly with whole transcriptome sequencing via MPS technologies, are used to identify RNA markers to determine the cellular source of crime scene sample. This is forensically relevant for reconstructing the course of events that may have happened at the scene of crime and to support the use of DNA at the activity level of evidence interpretation. Human epigenome data established with DNA methylation microarray technologies, and increasingly by whole epigenome sequencing via MPS technologies, are used to identify DNA methylation markers for forensic tissue identification, for predicting lifetime age suitable for finding unknown perpetrators and for differentiating identical twins, the latter two cannot be identified via standard DNA profiling. Targeted MPS technologies, partly combined with hybridization capture and primer extension capture technologies, are applied to analyse forensic DNA and RNA markers with increased throughput, which improves various forensic applications, such as individual and lineage identification, appearance and ancestry prediction, as well as the interpretation of DNA mixtures produced from more than one person. Non-human genomic and transcriptomic data, such as those from insects or microbes, are useful in the forensic context, e.g., to estimate time of death, and for microbial species and strain identification to solve cases of bioterrorism. Several of these developments are covered by the articles collated in this Special Issue we have the privilege to serve as guest editors for. Thus, we not only aim to introduce the field of forensics to the wider community of geneticists, but do so by emphasizing on topics where genomic principles, methods, and dataset are started to be employed in the forensic context.

Prof. Manfred Kayser
Prof. Walther Parson
Guest Editors

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