As time is of the essence in many police investigations, the
future of forensics will implement various Next Generation Sequencing
techniques (Bhagat and Shetty, 2014) which require less time to
run, such as SOLiD and Illumina (Solexa) sequencing (Mardis,
2008).
Figure 1. A diagram demonstrating the SOLiD
method sequences via ligation where a large group of oligonucleotides are
labelled by their position on the sequence annealed and ligated, then amplified
through PCR (Mardis, 2008).
Figure 2. Illumina Sequencing enables rapid sequencing of DNA base pairs encompassing entire genomes via
bridge amplification resulting in the entire sequence of each chromosome in the
DNA sample being recorded (Mardis,
2008).
The application of nanopore technology such as with the
USB-key based MinION
MkI provides real-time biological analysis due to its accessibility as it can
be plugged into a laptop by USB thereby meaning lab-based DNA sequencing is a
thing of the past (Oxford Nanopore Technologies, 2016).
Figure 3. The nanopore is immersed in a
fluid and an electrical current is passed through it, and each DNA base moved
through the nanopore causes a specific disruption in this electrical current (Eser, 2015).
.
Bhagat, V. & Shetty, C.K. (2014). Amazing Advances in Forensic
DNA Analysis – past, present and the future. International
Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 5(6),
pp. 1418–1422.
Eser, R. (2015). The next generation of Sequencing
technologies. Retrieved 28 February 2016, from
Mardis, E.R. (2008). Next-generation DNA Sequencing methods. Annual
Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 9(1), pp. 387–402. doi:
10.1146/annurev.genom.9.081307.164359
Oxford Nanopore Technologies. (2016). MinION MkI - products
& services - Oxford Nanopore technologies. Retrieved 28 February 2016, from
https://www.nanoporetech.com/products-services/minion-mki
