Crime investigation through DNA methylation analysis: methods and applications in forensics

Abstract

Discerning monozygotic twins, precisely predicting the age of human beings and most importantly interpreting human behavior remains a big challenge in forensic science. Modern advances in the field of epigenetics especially analysis of DNA methylation pattern can certainly help to identify and discriminate various single-source DNA samples such as bodily fluids collected from the crime scene. In this review, cytosine methylation analysis of DNA has been methodologically discussed with a broad range of applications in forensic science such as identifying single or mixed body fluid, discriminating monozygotic twins, age prediction, addiction/behavioral prediction as well as race/ethnicity identification. With the advances of next-generation sequencing techniques, blooming of DNA methylation datasets and together with standard epigenetic protocols, the prospect of investigating and solving these critical issues in forensic science is highly promising in the court of law.