Comparison of DNA yield and STR profiles from the diaphysis, mid‐diaphysis, and metaphysis regions of femur and tibia long bones

DNA testing of human bones is performed for identification when there is no remaining soft tissue, which often means the samples are old or environmentally compromised. Under these circumstances, it can be difficult to obtain a STR DNA profile. It is important to recover the highest quantity and quality of DNA for STR typing. This study compared the DNA recovery and STR profiles from five anatomical locations in five femora and five tibiae. These locations include the proximal metaphysis, proximal diaphysis, mid‐diaphysis, distal diaphysis, and distal metaphysis. Twenty‐five femur samples and 25 tibia samples were analyzed using the Qiagen Investigator Quantiplex Pro RGQ Kit for quantitating the extracted DNA and the Qiagen Investigator 24plex QS Kit for STR DNA typing. The highest DNA recovery of the five regions tested in both the femur and the tibia was from the midshaft diaphysis. The femur samples resulted in a significantly higher DNA recovery than the tibia samples as analyzed using a Kruskal–Wallis test (P = 0.002103). The midshaft diaphysis and distal diaphysis yielded the most complete STR DNA profiles in the femora, while the distal and proximal diaphysis yielded the most complete STR DNA profiles in the tibiae. There was no correlation between the amount of DNA recovered and the completeness of the STR DNA profile produced with low template extracts in this study.