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Barcoding of Plant DNA and Its Forensic Relevance

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Handbook of DNA Profiling

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Abstract

Forensic botany refers to the study of plants and how they can relate to law and legal matters. Unfortunately, while widely known as a science, this discipline has few professionally trained botanists.

Law enforcement workers and forensic scientists are no more informed about the science of botany with the consequence that few individuals understand the importance of plants in criminal investigations. Therefore, important plant evidence is frequently overlooked. Plants or their parts can place a person or object at a crime scene, verify or refute an alibi, and help determine the cause and the time since death, the time of a crime, the place where a crime occurred, or the reason for an illness.

Plant DNA barcoding identifies species using recent advances in genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics using short DNA sequences, known as the DNA barcode. This concept was established almost 20 years ago, and it’s based on the comparison of sequences obtained from unknown species against a reference database with the purpose of identification.

This universal and highly standardized method has also proven its benefits in forensic investigations both for wildlife and plants, as several studies and real caseworks have proven over the years. However, especially for plants, some challenges in the implementation of this system still exist, mainly related to the current status of the global reference sequence databases.

Efforts must be encouraged to enrich data engendered by barcoding projects so that forensic botany can benefit from it. This is particularly critical in countries with extraordinary biodiversity.

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Author notes

  1. Gianmarco Ferri and Beatrice Corradini contributed equally with all other contributors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Gianmarco Ferri, Beatrice Corradini, Francesca Ferrari & Enrico Silingardi

Authors
  1. Gianmarco Ferri
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  2. Beatrice Corradini
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  3. Francesca Ferrari
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  4. Enrico Silingardi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gianmarco Ferri .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Scientific Officer, Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Hirak Ranjan Dash

  2. DNA Fingerprinting Unit, Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Pankaj Shrivastava

  3. University of Granada, Granada, Granada, Spain

    José Antonio Lorente

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Ferri, G., Corradini, B., Ferrari, F., Silingardi, E. (2021). Barcoding of Plant DNA and Its Forensic Relevance. In: Dash, H.R., Shrivastava, P., Lorente, J.A. (eds) Handbook of DNA Profiling. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9364-2_42-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9364-2_42-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-9364-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-9364-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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