International Journal of Forensic Science

Y chromosome plays key role in medical and forensic application especially paternal inheritance. Beyond the sex determination, several Y chromosome linked genetic disorders can be diagnosed. 5% of the Y chromosome comprises of pseudoautosomal regions (PAR1 and PAR2) on the Yp arm and Yq arm respectively. Remaining 95% of the Y chromosome does not recombine during meiosis. The non-recombining region of the Y chromosome is designated as "NRY" (non-recombining region). NRY region includes the SRY gene or Male Specific Y (MSY) chromosome. In view of the fact that the Y chromosome is traversed to next generation, it is frequently used in genealogy to track the male ancestry. Both medical and forensic aspects of Y chromosome have been reviewed systematically according to the advancements of technology in the molecular genetics field.

Genetic markers are very frequently used in human identification of paternity, maternity, and kinship cases. Establishing the kin relationships between a child and his biological father or biological mother involves many statical facts. DNA fingerprinting technology has been proven a useful tool worldwide to solve the crime. Before the discovery of DNA fingerprinting technology, other technologies such as dactyloscopy, anthropology, odontology, and medico-legal examinations were used for identification of human remains. These technologies provide limited information in comparison to DNA finger printing which provides the genetic information of the unknown human remains. The human remains may be soft tissue, bones, teeth, or hairs from which the genetic information can be extracted from these wide variety of biological materials. In conditions where the biological material mainly soft tissue is degraded due to climatic conditions, presence of scavengers, and rate of bacterial growth but skeletal remains (bone and teeth) are found intact in such situations. In these circumstances, hard tissues have been observed as the most suitable source for forensic application. In this study, we present a paternity testing case of a Very Rare Mutating Marker D21S11 between father and child. The average mutational rate of the D21S11 marker is estimated at 0.19%.

An attempt has been made to develop a new thin layer chromatographic method for analysis of ‘Dothiepin, Paroxetine, Thioridazine and Trifluoperazine’ in blood using different solvent system as mobile phase. ‘These antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs’ were extracted from blood samples using liquid-liquid extraction method and analysed by Thin Layer Chromatography. 15 different solvent systems with different concentration were introduced and various TLC plates were run in these solvent systems. The Developed plates were viewed under UV light 254 nm followed by spray of chromogenic reagent i.e., Dragendorff’s Reagent which efficaciously amplified the sensitivity without upsetting simplicity of the method. The observations in each case were thoroughly analysed and reported. The developed method is a simple, rapid, low-cost, non-destructive and reproducible which can be performed in any laboratory easily.