Sampling from four geographically divergent young female populations demonstrates forensic geolocation potential in microbiomes.

Studies of human microbiomes using new sequencing techniques have increasingly demonstrated that their ecologies are partly determined by the lifestyle and habits of individuals. As such, significant forensic information could be obtained from high throughput sequencing of the human microbiome. This approach, combined with multiple analytical techniques demonstrates that bacterial DNA can be used to uniquely identify an individual and to provide information about their life and behavioral patterns.

On the improbability of pre-European Polynesian voyages to Antarctica: a response to Priscilla Wehi and colleagues.

Recent publications by Wehi and colleagues assert that Māori or other Polynesians in the pre-European era voyaged to and from the Antarctic. Such ideas have been advanced for more than a century, largely in relation to Rarotongan traditions translated by Percy Smith. As the juxtaposition of unexamined Polynesian traditions with historical archives is problematic for both historiography and matauranga Māori, an analytical approach is taken here to the traditional evidence.

Genetic variation and population structure of Botswana populations as identified with AmpFLSTR Identifiler short tandem repeat (STR) loci.

Population structure was investigated in 990 Botswana individuals according to ethno-linguistics, Bantu and Khoisan, and geography (the nine administrative districts) using the Identifiler autosomal microsatellite markers. Genetic diversity and forensic parameters were calculated for the overall population, and according to ethno-linguistics and geography. The overall combined power of exclusion (CPE) was 0.

Polymorphisms at 17 Y-STR loci in Botswana populations.

Seventeen Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (YSTRs)-DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS385a/b, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635, and Y-GATA-H4-were analyzed in 252 unrelated male individuals from Botswana. A total of 238 unique haplotypes were identified. The discrimination capacity (DC) was 0.