Zeitschrift für forensische Forschung

Molecular Identification of Forensically Important Indian Species of Flesh Flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) by Using COI Gene of Mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

Manish Sharma, Devinder Singh and Ajay Kumar Sharma

Identification of the fauna collected from and around the corpse is an absolutely vital prerequisite for the estimation of post mortem interval(PMI) in the field of forensic entomology. Morphological identification of flesh flies (Diptera; Sarcophagidae) can be perplexing due similar attributes of the species. So, to simplify the identification method, amplification of cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene is often tried. We illustrate the use of 450 bp fragment of COI gene for differentiation of ten forensically significant species of flesh flies in India. The outcome displays the robustness of COI gene as a diagnostic marker, since its nucleotide variability endows reliable distinction to be drawn between species. Four new COI gene sequences have been added to GenBank which may be of interest for correct species identification for future workers.