Local mitochondrial DNA haplotype databases needed for domestic dog populations that have experienced founder effect.

Biological material from pets is often collected as evidence from crime scenes. Due to sample type and quality, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is frequently evaluated to identify the potential contributor. MtDNA has a lower discriminatory power than nuclear DNA with multiple individuals in a population potentially carrying the same mtDNA sequence, or haplotype.

Forensic informativity of ~3000 bp of coding sequence of domestic dog mtDNA.

The discriminatory power of the noncoding control region (CR) of domestic dog mitochondrial DNA alone is relatively low. The extent to which the discriminatory power could be increased by analyzing additional highly variable coding regions of the mitochondrial genome (mtGenome) was therefore investigated. Genetic variability across the mtGenome was evaluated by phylogenetic analysis, and the three most variable ~1 kb coding regions identified.