School of Forensic Medicine, China Medical University, No.77, Puhe Road, Shenbei New District, Shenyang, 110122, P.R. China.
Key Laboratory of Forensic Bio-evidence Sciences, Shenyang, P.R. China.
Int J Legal Med. 2024 Nov;138(6):2249-2258. doi: 10.1007/s00414-024-03269-1. Epub 2024 Jun 11.
Monozygotic (MZ) twins cannot be distinguished using conventional forensic STR typing because they present identical STR genotypings. However, MZ twins do not always live in the same environment and often have different dietary and other lifestyle habits. Metabolic profiles are deyermined by individual characteristics and are also influenced by the environment in which they live. Therefore, they are potential markers capable of identifying MZ twins. Moreover, the production of proteins varies from organism to organism and is influenced by both the physiological state of the body and the external environment. Hence, we used metabolomics and proteomics to identify metabolites and proteins in peripheral blood to discriminate MZ twins. We identified 1749 known metabolites and 622 proteins in proteomic analysis. The metabolic profiles of four pairs of MZ twins revealed minor differences in intra-MZ twins and major differences in inter-MZ twins. Each pair of MZ twins exhibited distinct characteristics, and four metabolites-methyl picolinate, acesulfame, paraxanthine, and phenylbenzimidazole sulfonic acid-were observed in all four MZ twin pairs. These four differential exogenous metabolites conincidently show that the different external environments and life styles can be well distinguished by metabolites, considering that twins do not all have the same eating habits and living environments. Moreover, MZ twins showed different protein profiles in serum but not in whole blood. Thus, our results indicate that differential metabolites provide potential biomarkers for the personal identification of MZ twins in forensic medicine.
同卵(MZ)双胞胎无法通过常规法医 STR 分型来区分,因为它们具有相同的 STR 基因分型。然而,MZ 双胞胎并不总是生活在相同的环境中,他们往往有不同的饮食和其他生活习惯。代谢特征由个体特征决定,同时也受到他们所处环境的影响。因此,它们是潜在的能够识别 MZ 双胞胎的标志物。此外,蛋白质的产生因生物体而异,并且受到身体的生理状态和外部环境的影响。因此,我们使用代谢组学和蛋白质组学来鉴定外周血中的代谢物和蛋白质,以区分 MZ 双胞胎。我们在蛋白质组学分析中鉴定出 1749 种已知代谢物和 622 种蛋白质。四对 MZ 双胞胎的代谢谱显示出 MZ 双胞胎内的微小差异和 MZ 双胞胎间的巨大差异。每对 MZ 双胞胎都表现出独特的特征,并且在所有四对 MZ 双胞胎中都观察到四种代谢物——甲基吡啶甲酸、乙酰磺胺酸钾、茶碱和苯并咪唑磺酸。这四种差异的外源性代谢物表明,不同的外部环境和生活方式可以通过代谢物很好地区分,因为双胞胎并不都有相同的饮食习惯和生活环境。此外,MZ 双胞胎在血清中表现出不同的蛋白质谱,但在全血中没有。因此,我们的结果表明,差异代谢物为法医鉴定 MZ 双胞胎的个人身份提供了潜在的生物标志物。
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