Validation of the gene LEP for use in forensic

Genetic.
KAREN

Wedney Rodolpho de Oliveira1, Maria Helena2. Ariadne Gonalves3. Carina Elisei de

Oliveira4

Insect larvae and adult insects found on corpses provide important clues for the
estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) and judgment the identity of
individuals. Because fly eggs are usually deposited on a corpse before death,
determining the age of immature insect specimens collected from a corpse can
be an accurate way to analyse the forensical cases, but this it could be claimed
that the insect evidence was a contaminant or had been planted on the body.
However, larvae of arthropods can also be a source of DNA of vertebrates from
which they were fed. Forensic analysis of DNA retrieved from the gut of larvae
can be used to identify from what the larvae fed itself. Considering, the
application of forensics to crime investigation routinely involves genetic species
identification based on DNA sequence similarity. This study aimed to detect
DNA of vertebrates through the use of molecular techniques, amplified by PCR
the leptin gene (LEP), specific to vertebrates, which represents the last meal
held by the larval stage of the arthropod was used to provide evidence of
association. However, considering this is a recent technique, the analysis of the
content from the digestive tract of the larva, there are still many technical
limitations that have not been explored. In this study we demonstrate that LEP
gene sequence data can be obtained from the dissected gut of a maggot that
had fed on vertebrate tissue. These data can be used to identify both the animal
body upon which the maggot had been feeding and the species of the maggot
itself.