Citation

Wright SN, Huge BJ, Dovichi NJ. Electrophoresis 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Wiley-VCH)

DOI

10.1002/elps.201900455

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The processing of sexual assault kits (SAKs) relies on the genetic analysis of material extracted from swabs collected from the assault victim. A vital step in producing an identifiable DNA profile of the perpetrator is the effective separation of perpetrator (sperm) and victim (epithelial) DNA that have been isolated from the collected evidence. We report the use of capillary zone electrophoresis for the separation of intact sperm from whole and lysed epithelial cells in SAKs. The separated components are deposited into wells of a microtiter plate using a computer-controlled fraction collector, and quantitative PCR is used to verify the collection of sperm cells by targeted amplification of male DNA. We present results from simulated sexual assault samples that have been aged for up to 18 months, as well as vaginal swabs from authentic forensic kits. Components extracted from the vaginal swabs from the SAK co-migrated with an aged semen sample at 6.25 ± 0.25 minutes. Epithelial cells migrated from 10-12 minutes, producing baseline resolution of the components. Sperm cells were collected in a microtiter plate for downstream analysis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

forensics; capillary electrophoresis; fraction collection; separation