Tarone Aaron M, Foran David R
Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, USA.
J Forensic Sci. 2011 Jan;56 Suppl 1:S112-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01632.x. Epub 2010 Dec 13.
Forensic entomologists use size and developmental stage to estimate blow fly age, and from those, a postmortem interval. Since such estimates are generally accurate but often lack precision, particularly in the older developmental stages, alternative aging methods would be advantageous. Presented here is a means of incorporating developmentally regulated gene expression levels into traditional stage and size data, with a goal of more precisely estimating developmental age of immature Lucilia sericata. Generalized additive models of development showed improved statistical support compared to models that did not include gene expression data, resulting in an increase in estimate precision, especially for postfeeding third instars and pupae. The models were then used to make blind estimates of development for 86 immature L. sericata raised on rat carcasses. Overall, inclusion of gene expression data resulted in increased precision in aging blow flies.
法医昆虫学家利用大小和发育阶段来估计丽蝇的年龄，并据此推断死亡时间间隔。由于此类估计通常较为准确，但往往缺乏精确性，尤其是在发育后期阶段，因此采用其他老化方法会更具优势。本文介绍了一种将发育调控基因表达水平纳入传统阶段和大小数据的方法，目的是更精确地估计未成熟丝光绿蝇的发育年龄。与未纳入基因表达数据的模型相比，发育的广义相加模型显示出更好的统计支持，从而提高了估计精度，特别是对于进食后的三龄幼虫和蛹。然后，这些模型被用于对在大鼠尸体上饲养的86只未成熟丝光绿蝇的发育情况进行盲测。总体而言，纳入基因表达数据提高了丽蝇老化的精度。
