ArticleInvestigative genetics2013
Bona fide colour: DNA prediction of human eye and hair colour from ancient and contemporary skeletal remains.
Article in Investigative genetics, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Advancement in Human Face Prediction Using DNA.Genes · 2023Pooled it
- Overlapping application of the forensic DNA analysis workflow to buried late-medieval human skeletal remains.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- Archaeogenetics reveals fine-scale genetic continuity and patterns of kinship and health in medieval Finland.iScience · 2025Article
- Forensic skeletal and molecular anthropology face to face: Combining expertise for identification of human remains.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Inference of human pigmentation from ancient DNA by genotype likelihoods.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Facing the Unknown: Integration of Skeletal Traits, Genetic Information and Forensic Facial Approximation.Genes · 2025Article
- Forensic DNA phenotyping: a review on SNP panels, genotyping techniques, and prediction models.Forensic sciences research · 2025Review
- Evolutionary insights into Felidae iris color through ancestral state reconstruction.iScience · 2024Article
- Exploring Eye, Hair, and Skin Pigmentation in a Spanish Population: Insights from Hirisplex-S Predictions.Genes · 2024Article
- Evaluation of loci to predict ear morphology using two SNaPshot assays.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2023Article
- Eye and hair color prediction of an early medieval adult and subadult skeleton using massive parallel sequencing technology.International journal of legal medicine · 2023Article
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- Application of Forensic DNA Phenotyping for Prediction of Eye, Hair and Skin Colour in Highly Decomposed Bodies.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
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- Further insight into the global variability of the OCA2-HERC2 locus for human pigmentation from multiallelic markers.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- DNA recovery and analysis from skeletal material in modern forensic contexts.Forensic sciences research · 2019Review
- Global skin colour prediction from DNA.Human genetics · 2017Article
- Identification of a novel locus associated with skin colour in African-admixed populations.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Forensically relevant SNaPshotInternational journal of legal medicine · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
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backgroundDNA analysis of ancient skeletal remains is invaluable in evolutionary biology for exploring the history of species, including humans. Contemporary human bones and teeth, however, are relevant in forensic DNA analyses that deal with the identification of perpetrators, missing persons, disaster victims or family relationships. They may also provide useful information towards unravelling controversies that surround famous historical individuals. Retrieving information about a deceased person's externally visible characteristics can be informative in both types of DNA analyses. Recently, we demonstrated that human eye and hair colour can be reliably predicted from DNA using the HIrisPlex system. Here we test the feasibility of the novel HIrisPlex system at establishing eye and hair colour of deceased individuals from skeletal remains of various post-mortem time ranges and storage conditions.
methodsTwenty-one teeth between 1 and approximately 800 years of age and 5 contemporary bones were subjected to DNA extraction using standard organic protocol followed by analysis using the HIrisPlex system.
resultsTwenty-three out of 26 bone DNA extracts yielded the full 24 SNP HIrisPlex profile, therefore successfully allowing model-based eye and hair colour prediction. HIrisPlex analysis of a tooth from the Polish general Władysław Sikorski (1881 to 1943) revealed blue eye colour and blond hair colour, which was positively verified from reliable documentation. The partial profiles collected in the remaining three cases (two contemporary samples and a 14th century sample) were sufficient for eye colour prediction.
conclusionsOverall, we demonstrate that the HIrisPlex system is suitable, sufficiently sensitive and robust to successfully predict eye and hair colour from ancient and contemporary skeletal remains. Our findings, therefore, highlight the HIrisPlex system as a promising tool in future routine forensic casework involving skeletal remains, including ancient DNA studies, for the prediction of eye and hair colour of deceased individuals.
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