Assessing DNA recovery from highly degraded skeletal remains by using silica-based extraction methods

Through this study, we extracted human DNA as for five different type of skeletal remains: petrous bone, tooth pulp cavity, tooth cementum, rib and at least two different upper limbs bones (radial, ulna, metacarpal or phalange) from five individuals (5-12th centuries AD) by using four extraction methods; three based on DNA adsorption to silicon dioxide (silica) particles, Non-Columns Silica (NCSi), Silica-HE Spin Columns (SiHEC), Silica-XS Spin Columns (SiXSC) and the traditional organic extraction method (P-Chl) (N:100 DNA extracts). The results showed that the NCSi and SiHEC extraction methods, petrous bones and pulp cavity allowed recovering the highest amount of PCR-amplifiable human mtDNA. The autosomal STRs profiles from petrous DNA presented > 70 % reportable alleles and peak heights between 50-498 RFUs using both extraction methods. The lower amount of DNA was showed from rib and P-Chl extraction method.