Page 11 - Aequitas
P. 11
AEQUITAS VOLUME: 1, ISSUE: 1
a preliminary inspection of
Analysis of hair evidence can help the hair can be conducted
us identify the culprit that was using a microscope. Hence,
there at the scene of the crime or a new technique has
help us omit suspects. The analysis emerged in the field of
of hair samples using short tandem forensics under the heading
repeat (STR) is highly dependent on of hair analysis that doesn’t
the type of hair obtained from the depend on the nuDNA of
scene of the crime. The hairs often hair.
used in STR bear anagen roots or
are actively growing hairs that The most current method
have nuclear DNA (nuDNA). Hairs to emerge in the realm of
in the quiescent or catagen phases forensic science is called
can also be used for this process. metagenomics. It is the
study of the structure of
entire nucleotide sequences
However, the majority of hairs that are isolated and
obtained from crime scenes are analyzed from all
those in the telogen phase or organisms, typically for
shed hairs; as these hairs have microbes in a bulk sample.
stopped growing, they have It’s often used to study a specific
little to no usable nuDNA.
community of microorganisms,
such as those residing on human
To determine if a hair was skin, hair, soil, or water samples.
chemically treated or removed Using metagenomics techniques,
by force and to determine its scientists can obtain the unique
color,
combination of microbial taxa
that is unique to each person.
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