ArticleGenes2018
Investigating the Epigenetic Discrimination of Identical Twins Using Buccal Swabs, Saliva, and Cigarette Butts in the Forensic Setting.
Article in Genes, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- DNA Profiling in forensic genetics and anthropogenetics: Techniques, databases, and ethical considerations.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2026Review
- DNA recovery and STR profiling from heated tobacco sticks for forensic personal identification.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2026Article
- Advanced molecular techniques in distinguishing monozygotic twins for forensic applications.Genes & genomics · 2026Review
- Preparing for Shotgun Sequencing in Forensic Genetics-A Workflow for Analysis of Monozygotic Twins.Genes · 2026Article
- Forensic genetics in the omics era.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Review
- Uncovering Forensic Evidence: A Path to Age Estimation through DNA Methylation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Discrimination of monozygotic twins using mtDNA heteroplasmy through probe capture enrichment and massively parallel sequencing.International journal of legal medicine · 2023Article
- Applications of massively parallel sequencing in forensic genetics.Genetics and molecular biology · 2022Article
- Developments in forensic DNA analysis.Emerging topics in life sciences · 2021Review
- Interpol review of forensic biology and forensic DNA typing 2016-2019.Forensic science international. Synergy · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Monozygotic (MZ) twins are typically indistinguishable via forensic DNA profiling. Recently, we demonstrated that epigenetic differentiation of MZ twins is feasible; however, proportions of twin differentially methylated CpG sites (tDMSs) identified in reference-type blood DNA were not replicated in trace-type blood DNA. Here we investigated buccal swabs as typical forensic reference material, and saliva and cigarette butts as commonly encountered forensic trace materials. As an analog to a forensic case, we analyzed one MZ twin pair. Epigenome-wide microarray analysis in reference-type buccal DNA revealed 25 candidate tDMSs with >0.5 twin-to-twin differences. MethyLight quantitative PCR (qPCR) of 22 selected tDMSs in trace-type DNA revealed in saliva DNA that six tDMSs (27.3%) had >0.1 twin-to-twin differences, seven (31.8%) had smaller (<0.1) but robustly detected differences, whereas for nine (40.9%) the differences were in the opposite direction relative to the microarray data; for cigarette butt DNA, results were 50%, 22.7%, and 27.3%, respectively. The discrepancies between reference-type and trace-type DNA outcomes can be explained by cell composition differences, method-to-method variation, and other technical reasons including bisulfite conversion inefficiency. Our study highlights the importance of the DNA source and that careful characterization of biological and technical effects is needed before epigenetic MZ twin differentiation is applicable in forensic casework.
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Registered trials
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