Complicities Between Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Genetics: New Opportunities for Genomics?

Abstract

Human genome projects have been generating a vast amount of data which is impacting several areas, and forensic anthropology is no exception. In this chapter the interrelation between forensic anthropology and forensic genetics is highlighted, and the potential role that genomics can have in forensic science is addressed. The main sub-areas to which forensic anthropology can call the expertise of forensic genetics are listed and discussed. Genome-wide studies have recently started to be used to generate data which can efficiently aid forensic anthropologists; noteworthy, epigenetic analysis has also demonstrated its potential of application to questions that are posed to forensic anthropology. We argue that the partnership between forensic anthropology and forensic genetics is essential for stepping further in forensic sciences and that recent genomic tools have the potential to efficiently resolve questions left unanswered by genetics.

Keywords: Ancestry analysis, Forensic anthropology, Forensic genetics, Next generation sequencing, Positive identification, Sex diagnosis, Whole genome studies.

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