Abstract
In crime investigation, some 40% of the DNA profiles recovered from the crime scene do not match to DNA profiles in the criminal DNA database. Hence, the ability to predict age from DNA samples provides additional information that would facilitate crime investigations. The present study aimed to develop a correlation model between signal joint T-cell receptor excision circle (sjTREC) quantity and age. A dual-TaqMan® probe qPCR assay was used to quantify sjTREC numbers, normalised against the single copy gene albumin. This novel dual-probe assay showed an increased sensitivity as sjTREC could be amplified in donors up to 67 years old using only 12ng of DNA with less than 40 PCR cycles. In comparison, literature had cited at least 50ng of DNA with more than 40 PCR cycles. The age prediction accuracy of ±8.6 years for the Singapore Chinese population was comparable to previous studies. The results also suggested that the trend of sjTREC numbers with age could be different between the Singapore Chinese and Malay populations. However, a larger Malay sample size would be required to ascertain this observation.
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