Author: Aaron M. Tarone
Abstract:
The age of the blow fly is a useful forensic indicator for
forensic entomologists as to the postmortem interval (PMI) in death
investigations.
Estimates of fly age due to genetic variation, however, can
vary considerably in their precision and can potentially impact forensic PMI
timeline estimates. The purpose of this study was to expand knowledge of the
genetic variations of the blow fly, with a goal of more precisely estimating
PMI.
By conducting a selection experiment on development times of
the blow fly, researchers were able to observe variances in development over
tens of generations of selection. The results from this selection experiment
were sequenced using next-generation sequencing technology to simultaneously
develop reference genomes.
The project found that that a wild genetic variation could
potentially impact forensic PMI predictions. The author also provides an
empirical estimate of such an impact.
The author hopes that the results of this project will
enable researchers to pursue candidate genes that are markers of development
time variation, developmental progress, and thermal exposure for usefulness in
predicting blow fly age. Such candidates could be developed into components of
phenotype prediction and age prediction kits.
The author notes that the analyses are preliminary and
suggests that subsequent publications with the data presented in this report
may differ from future publications based on the collection of additional data,
changes in parameter settings, differences in statistical tests performed, or
choices in algorithms applied to the data.
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