University of Coimbra, Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences Calçada Martim de Freitas, Coimbra, 3000-456, Portugal.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Science, Geology & Geochemistry Cluster, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Co van Ledden Hulsebosch Centre (CLHC), Science Park 904, 1098 XH, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Forensic Sci Int. 2020 Sep;314:110422. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110422. Epub 2020 Jul 16.
Deceased undocumented border crossers are some of the most difficult individuals to identify due to the inability to narrow down the region of origin and therefore to obtain family reference samples for DNA comparison. The isotopic compositions of various body tissues have been demonstrated to be useful biomarkers for tracking locations and movements to aid in the identification of human remains. This study closes the large spatial gap of available Sr/Sr ratios from North America in tap water and presents the first Sr/Sr human tissue-based ratios from Mexico. The 101 hair samples from 32 locations in Mexico range in Sr/Sr ratios from 0.70424 to 0.71613 (ΔSr=0.01189). Furthermore, 151 tap water samples from 51 locations range between 0.70404 to 0.71385 (ΔSr=0.00981). Overall, small variations in the hair and tap water samples collected from individual locations were recorded (ΔSr=0.00041 and 0.00034 respectively). Despite the fact that Mexico is one of the largest bottled water consumers in the world, the Sr/Sr ratios of human hair and tap water correlated strongly (R=0.87 for location averages and R=0.80 when using individual data points). These data represent a valuable resource for identifying the provenance of human remains.
死者无证移民是最难确定身份的人群之一，因为无法缩小原籍地区，因此无法获得 DNA 比对的家族参考样本。各种身体组织的同位素组成已被证明是追踪位置和运动的有用生物标志物，有助于识别人类遗骸。本研究填补了来自北美的自来水 Sr/Sr 比值的大空间差距，并首次提供了来自墨西哥的基于 Sr/Sr 的人体组织比值。从墨西哥 32 个地点采集的 101 份头发样本的 Sr/Sr 比值范围在 0.70424 至 0.71613 之间（ΔSr=0.01189）。此外，从 51 个地点采集的 151 份自来水样本的 Sr/Sr 比值范围在 0.70404 至 0.71385 之间（ΔSr=0.00981）。总体而言，从个别地点采集的头发和自来水样本的 Sr/Sr 比值变化很小（分别为ΔSr=0.00041 和 0.00034）。尽管墨西哥是世界上最大的瓶装水消费国之一，但人体头发和自来水的 Sr/Sr 比值相关性很强（位置平均值的 R=0.87，使用单个数据点时的 R=0.80）。这些数据代表了识别人类遗骸来源的宝贵资源。
