Low Template DNA: New Trends in Genotyping

Dear Colleagues,

DNA is a molecule that can endure for long periods under adverse environmental conditions. This has been shown since the early 1990s, when the possibility of recovering DNA from degraded samples became a promising technique for paleontology, archaeology, zoology, microbiology, and even forensics. In many situations within these fields, degraded and/or scarce DNA could be isolated, amplified, and sequenced applying specific protocols for very degraded genetic material. Results could shed light on problems that could not otherwise be resolved. Laboratory protocols, implemented according to the circumstances and the special biochemistry of degraded DNA, also helped to detect possible contamination with exogen DNA. In the last decade, however, a new generation of sequencing platforms has been developed. These new strategies can sequence in parallel thousands or even millions of DNA fragments from a given biological sample, from forensic remains, or traces of microorganisms from the soil. The sequencing data should at this point be assembled through specific algorithms executed by powerful computers, thus carrying DNA typing to a new frontier.

The Special Issue welcomes short communications, reviews, or original articles where new research casework or laboratory strategies for degraded and/or scarce DNA typing are shown. The scope ranges from human identification of forensic remains to microorganism metagenomics, and from ancient DNA typing of extinct species to diagnosis of diseases from the past.

Dr. Eduardo Arroyo Pardo
Guest Editor

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• low template DNA
• contaminating DNA
• PCR inhibitors
• human identification
• ancient DNA
• new strategies of genotyping
• populations of the past
• archaeogenetics
• forensic genetics
• metagenomics