The mitochondrial DNA tree and forensic science

Studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) began with simple restriction assays, moved on to high-resolution restriction analysis and control-region sequencing, and now make use of complete mtDNA sequences. Forensic labs have, by and large, continued to rely on the use of control-region databases, but these databases often contain a disconcertingly large number of sequence errors. A phylogenetic approach to mtDNA data sets can help to uncover such errors, and it is argued that an understanding of both the phylogenetic and phylogeographic context of mtDNA lineages is a valuable tool from which the forensics community can benefit. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.