TY - JOUR
T1 - Artificial fingerprints for cross-comparison of forensic DNA and protein recovery methods
AU - LeSassier, Danielle S.
AU - Schulte, Kathleen Q.
AU - Manley, Tara E.
AU - Smith, Alan R.
AU - Powals, Megan L.
AU - Albright, Nicolette C.
AU - Ludolph, Benjamin C.
AU - Weber, Katharina L.
AU - Woerner, August E.
AU - Gardner, Myles W.
AU - Curtis Hewitt, F.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is based upon work supported in part by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) (https://www. iarpa.gov), via contract number 2018-18041000003. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of ODNI, IARPA, or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation therein. The funders reviewed and approved the manuscript for publication but had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, or preparation of the manuscript. This research was supported in part by internal funding from Signature Science, LLC. Signature Science, LLC provided support in the form of salaries for authors DSL, KQS, TEM, ARS, MLP, NCA, BCL, KLW, MWG, and FCH but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. The authors would like to thank Dr. Andrew Reed, Maryam Baniasad, Dr. Liwen Zhang, and Dr. Michael Frietas at The Ohio State University for providing proteomic testing and feedback for artificial print samples. The authors also thank Dr. Bruce Budowle for technical feedback and assistance with IRB approvals.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 LeSassier et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - Quantitative genomic and proteomic evaluation of human latent fingerprint depositions represents a challenge within the forensic field, due to the high variability in the amount of DNA and protein initially deposited. To better assess recovery techniques for touch depositions, we present a method to produce simple and customizable artificial fingerprints. These artificial fingerprint samples include the primary components of a typical latent fingerprint, specifically sebaceous fluid, eccrine perspiration, extracellular DNA, and proteinaceous epidermal skin material (i.e., shed skin cells). A commercially available emulsion of sebaceous and eccrine perspiration material provides a chemically-relevant suspension solution for fingerprint deposition, simplifying artificial fingerprint production. Extracted human genomic DNA is added to accurately mimic the extracellular DNA content of a typical latent print and comparable DNA yields are recovered from the artificial prints relative to human prints across surface types. Capitalizing on recent advancements in the use of protein sequence identification for human forensic analysis, these samples also contain a representative quantity of protein, originating from epidermal skin cells collected from the fingers and palms of volunteers. Proteomic sequencing by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis indicates a high level of protein overlap between artificial and latent prints. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD015445. By including known quantities of DNA and protein into each artificial print, this method enables total DNA and protein recovery to be quantitatively assessed across different sample collection and extraction methods to better evaluate extraction efficiency. Collectively, these artificial fingerprint samples are simple to make, highly versatile and customizable, and accurately represent the biochemical composition and biological signatures of human fingerprints.
AB - Quantitative genomic and proteomic evaluation of human latent fingerprint depositions represents a challenge within the forensic field, due to the high variability in the amount of DNA and protein initially deposited. To better assess recovery techniques for touch depositions, we present a method to produce simple and customizable artificial fingerprints. These artificial fingerprint samples include the primary components of a typical latent fingerprint, specifically sebaceous fluid, eccrine perspiration, extracellular DNA, and proteinaceous epidermal skin material (i.e., shed skin cells). A commercially available emulsion of sebaceous and eccrine perspiration material provides a chemically-relevant suspension solution for fingerprint deposition, simplifying artificial fingerprint production. Extracted human genomic DNA is added to accurately mimic the extracellular DNA content of a typical latent print and comparable DNA yields are recovered from the artificial prints relative to human prints across surface types. Capitalizing on recent advancements in the use of protein sequence identification for human forensic analysis, these samples also contain a representative quantity of protein, originating from epidermal skin cells collected from the fingers and palms of volunteers. Proteomic sequencing by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis indicates a high level of protein overlap between artificial and latent prints. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD015445. By including known quantities of DNA and protein into each artificial print, this method enables total DNA and protein recovery to be quantitatively assessed across different sample collection and extraction methods to better evaluate extraction efficiency. Collectively, these artificial fingerprint samples are simple to make, highly versatile and customizable, and accurately represent the biochemical composition and biological signatures of human fingerprints.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072841740&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0223170
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0223170
M3 - Article
C2 - 31581206
AN - SCOPUS:85072841740
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 14
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 10
M1 - e0223170
ER -