Stabilizing mtDNA sequence nomenclature with an operationally efficient approach

In the absence of a full text or entire nucleotide string searching capability, identical or matching mtDNA sequences are identified by exhibiting the same differences from the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (rCRS). However, these may be named differently because of multiple alignments. Two approaches are discussed for attempting to name mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences consistently: a hierarchal bifurcating operational one and a phylogenetic one. The hierarchal bifurcating one is superior operationally because it allows for stability in nomenclature, is applicable to forensic evidence (i.e., partial sequence data), and is user intuitive. Executable software is under development to facilitate nomenclature assignments and to reduce human inconsistencies.