Sex determination from blood and teeth by PCR amplification of the alphoid satellite family.

Sex determination from blood and teeth by PCR amplification of the alphoid satellite family according to the method of Witt and Erickson was investigated. Amplification of the X-(131 bp) and Y-(172 bp) specific sequences in males and that of the X-specific sequence in females was satisfactory in almost all samples. However, of the 22 samples (blood: 5, dental pulp: 12, tooth hard tissue: 5), a false positive fragment was detected at 172 bp among the female samples (blood: 17, dental pulp: 30, tooth hard tissue: 23) as a result of silver staining. These bands were not amplified by the dual PCR method and were different from the Y-specific band. Subsequent restriction enzyme digestion (DdeI, HinfI, and NciI) of these bands resulted in different patterns from the typical Y-specific band. Furthermore, in five male samples of hard tooth tissue specimens (n = 14), a Y-specific band was detected as a weak band, and in two of these five samples, this weak specific band was not amplified by dual PCR in spite of the male origin of the samples. These results showed that this method is useful for sex determination, but that dual PCR and restriction analysis should be used together in practical applications.