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Puparia Cleaning Techniques for Forensic and Archaeo-Funerary Studies

SIMPLE SUMMARY: In forensic entomology, the correct identification of the species colonizing a body is fundamental. In old cases, puparia of Diptera represent the only entomological evidence available. Their identification is made particularly difficult not only because the lack of identification ke...

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Autores principales: Pradelli, Jennifer, Tuccia, Fabiola, Giordani, Giorgia, Vanin, Stefano
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7912659/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33530490
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12020104
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author Pradelli, Jennifer
Tuccia, Fabiola
Giordani, Giorgia
Vanin, Stefano
author_facet Pradelli, Jennifer
Tuccia, Fabiola
Giordani, Giorgia
Vanin, Stefano
author_sort Pradelli, Jennifer
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: In forensic entomology, the correct identification of the species colonizing a body is fundamental. In old cases, puparia of Diptera represent the only entomological evidence available. Their identification is made particularly difficult not only because the lack of identification keys, but also because the presence on their surface of elements (dust, soil, dry decomposition fluids, bacteria, etc.) that can cover the diagnostic characters. Because of their fragility and the low amount of DNA, six cleaning techniques based on chemical and physical treatments have been tested. The results of this study indicate that cleaning via warm water/soap, the sonication and treatment with a sodium hydroxide solution are the best methods to achieve a good quality of the samples. ABSTRACT: Diptera puparia may represent both in forensic and archaeo-funerary contexts the majority of the entomological evidence useful to reconstruct the peri and post-mortem events. Puparia identification is quite difficult due to the lack of identification keys and descriptions. In addition, external substances accumulated during the puparia permanence in the environment make the visualization of the few diagnostic characters difficult, resulting in a wrong identification. Six different techniques based on physical and chemical treatments have been tested for the removal of external substances from puparia to make identification at species level feasible. Furthermore, the effects of these methods on successful molecular analyses have also been tested as molecular identification is becoming an important tool to complement morphological identifications. The results of this study indicate that cleaning via warm water/soap, the sonication and treatment with a sodium hydroxide solution are the best methods to achieve a good quality of the samples.
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spelling pubmed-79126592021-02-28 Puparia Cleaning Techniques for Forensic and Archaeo-Funerary Studies Pradelli, Jennifer Tuccia, Fabiola Giordani, Giorgia Vanin, Stefano Insects Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: In forensic entomology, the correct identification of the species colonizing a body is fundamental. In old cases, puparia of Diptera represent the only entomological evidence available. Their identification is made particularly difficult not only because the lack of identification keys, but also because the presence on their surface of elements (dust, soil, dry decomposition fluids, bacteria, etc.) that can cover the diagnostic characters. Because of their fragility and the low amount of DNA, six cleaning techniques based on chemical and physical treatments have been tested. The results of this study indicate that cleaning via warm water/soap, the sonication and treatment with a sodium hydroxide solution are the best methods to achieve a good quality of the samples. ABSTRACT: Diptera puparia may represent both in forensic and archaeo-funerary contexts the majority of the entomological evidence useful to reconstruct the peri and post-mortem events. Puparia identification is quite difficult due to the lack of identification keys and descriptions. In addition, external substances accumulated during the puparia permanence in the environment make the visualization of the few diagnostic characters difficult, resulting in a wrong identification. Six different techniques based on physical and chemical treatments have been tested for the removal of external substances from puparia to make identification at species level feasible. Furthermore, the effects of these methods on successful molecular analyses have also been tested as molecular identification is becoming an important tool to complement morphological identifications. The results of this study indicate that cleaning via warm water/soap, the sonication and treatment with a sodium hydroxide solution are the best methods to achieve a good quality of the samples. MDPI 2021-01-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7912659/ /pubmed/33530490 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12020104 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Pradelli, Jennifer
Tuccia, Fabiola
Giordani, Giorgia
Vanin, Stefano
Puparia Cleaning Techniques for Forensic and Archaeo-Funerary Studies
title Puparia Cleaning Techniques for Forensic and Archaeo-Funerary Studies
title_full Puparia Cleaning Techniques for Forensic and Archaeo-Funerary Studies
title_fullStr Puparia Cleaning Techniques for Forensic and Archaeo-Funerary Studies
title_full_unstemmed Puparia Cleaning Techniques for Forensic and Archaeo-Funerary Studies
title_short Puparia Cleaning Techniques for Forensic and Archaeo-Funerary Studies
title_sort puparia cleaning techniques for forensic and archaeo-funerary studies
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7912659/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33530490
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12020104
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