Novel universal primers establish identity of an enormous number of animal species for forensic application

Abstract

This study describes a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based approach, which without knowing the history of a forensic sample, is able to reveal whether the source of the sample is human or animal, and, if animal, which of the 221 animal species included in the study, simply by using one set of novel primers to amplify and sequence the PCR amplicons. The primers described in this study universally amplify a specific segment of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence from a sample of unknown origin and delineate its identity to the level of family, genus and species. Because these primers are universal, this approach can be applied to an enormous number of other species, which are not included in the study, and could be an ultimate solution for the identification of species for forensic application.