Principles of Forensic DNA
for Officers of the Court
Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court
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Module 8 :: mtDNA & Y-STR

Topic 1 :: Introduction to mtDNA

Maternal Inheritance Pattern (cont.)

The second implication is a disadvantage: mtDNA is not a unique identifier. Because maternal relatives share the same mtDNA type, the source of a biological sample can never be conclusively identified with mtDNA. mtDNA analysis is a test of exclusion—that is, can someone be excluded as the source of a questioned sample?

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