Effect of DNA sample collection, storage and transport on DNA fingerprinting: An overview

DNA finger-printing is a revolution in the field of legal medicine as it is an efficient method to identify the criminals. DNA sample collection, storage and transport to laboratory are important aspect of successful DNA fingerprinting. Newer technique polymerase chain reaction has revolutionized DNA fingerprinting as very small amount even degraded sample of DNA is sufficient for successful PCR amplification. But PCR amplification of STR loci of degraded DNA sample is challenging as production of artifacts known as shadow bands causes difficulty to interpret genorype ^(1,2). So PCR failure rate is higher for the older degraded sample in comparison to fresh DNA sample ^(3,4). We suggest if DNA samples are not collected, stored, transported properly, optimum PCR result will not be obtained.