Molecular Markers for Human Sex Determination in Forensic Genetics Analysis

Abstract

Sex determination is indispensable in forensic anthropology, sexual disorder, and also as part of large-scale genetic population studies. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the human sex from whole blood using multiplex PCR analysis. Blood samples from 75 male and 70 female healthy volunteers were taken from Tikrit city, Iraq. Our study identified a reliable set of three primer locus, namely SRY, ALT1 (internal control) and amelogenin locus. The SRY primer on the Y chromosome showed a 254 bp of PCR product, with 100% accuracy for human male identification. Thus, the pair of SRY primers was considered a strong genetic marker for human sex identification. Amelogenin regions in the Y chromosome showed a true positive band (236 bp) with 100% accuracy on sex identification. Amelogenin regions in X chromosome also showed positive bands (330 bp) in female samples and positive band in male samples except for two samples showed a negative band (null bands). The most obvious finding from this study is that multiplex PCR of ALT1 and SRY is consider as a reliable genetic marker for human sex identification. The research has also shown that amelogenin is good genetic marker for human sex identification.