Salivary microbiome signatures of Poles and Serbians and its potential for prediction of biogeographic ancestry.

Biogeographical ancestry analysis is valuable in forensic investigations, especially in missing person cases or crimes without eyewitnesses, as it helps to infer geographic origins from genetic markers. This approach enhances forensic efforts by providing essential clues for identifying individuals with limited direct evidence. Slavic-speaking populations are poorly distinguishable based on human genome variability.

Recommendations of the Polish-speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG-PL) regarding the disclosure of biological traces and the handling of evidence for identification tests.

The purpose of this paper is to formulate recommendations for the disclosure of biological traces in the laboratory and the handling of forensic evidence submitted for identification tests, recommended by the Polish Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. The paper organizes the knowledge of the most relevant stages of preliminary analysis of biological traces based on both literature sources and those resulting from years of research practice. Recommendations formulated in the course of multi-stage expert consultations contained in this study should be used in the development of laboratory procedures applied during the execution.

Low-level point heteroplasmy detection in human mitogenomes amplified with different polymerases and sequenced on MiSeq FGx platform.

Introduction: Massively parallel sequencing of mitogenomes usually requires prior amplification. The PCR step may influence the quality of the data obtained, especially when low-level heteroplasmy detection is applied.

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the reliability of two different DNA polymerases in detecting homoplasmic and heteroplasmic substitutions in human mitogenomes.

The effect of library preparation protocol on the efficiency of heteroplasmy detection in mitochondrial DNA using two massively parallel sequencing Illumina systems.

Massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technology has become the gold standard in mitochondrial DNA research due to its high sensitivity in detecting mtDNA heteroplasmy, a prognostic marker in various medical applications. Various MPS technologies and platforms used for mtDNA analysis exist. Obtaining reliable and sensitive results requires deep and uniform coverage of the entire mtDNA sequence, which is heavily influenced by the choice of library preparation method and sequencing platform.