Forensic genetic investigation of human skeletal remains recovered from the La Belle shipwreck

Angie Ambers; Magdalena M Bus; Jonathan L King; Bradford Jones; Jeffrey Durst; James E Bruseth; Harrell Gill-King; Bruce Budowle

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.110050

Forensic genetic investigation of human skeletal remains recovered from the La Belle shipwreck

Forensic Sci Int. 2020 Jan:306:110050. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.110050. Epub 2019 Nov 12.

Authors

Angie Ambers¹, Magdalena M Bus², Jonathan L King², Bradford Jones³, Jeffrey Durst³, James E Bruseth³, Harrell Gill-King⁴, Bruce Budowle⁵

Affiliations

¹ Center for Human Identification, Research and Development Unit, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107, USA; Forensic Science Department, Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences, University of New Haven, 300 Boston Post Road, West Haven, CT 06516, USA. Electronic address: aambers@newhaven.edu.
² Center for Human Identification, Research and Development Unit, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107, USA.
³ Texas Historical Commission, Archaeology Division, P.O. Box 12276, Austin, TX 78711, USA.
⁴ Center for Human Identification, Forensic Anthropology Unit, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107, USA; Institute of Forensic Anthropology and Human Evolution, Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, 1510 Chestnut Street, Denton, TX 76201, USA.
⁵ Center for Human Identification, Research and Development Unit, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107, USA; Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Genetics, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107, USA.

PMID: 31790892
DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.110050

Abstract

In 1995, the historical shipwreck of La Belle was discovered off the coast of Texas. One partial human skeleton was recovered from alongside cargo in the rear portion of the ship; a second (complete) skeleton was found atop coiled anchor rope in the bow. In late 2015, comprehensive forensic genetic testing began on multiple samplings from each set of remains. For the partial skeleton recovered from the ship's rear cargo area, results were obtained for 26/27 Y-STRs using traditional CE; with MPS technology, results were obtained for 18/24 Y-STRs, 56/56 ancestry-informative SNPs (aiSNPs), 22/22 phenotype-informative SNPs (piSNPs), 22/27 autosomal STRs, 4/7 X-STRs, and 94/94 identity-informative SNPs (iiSNPs). For the complete skeleton of the second individual, results were obtained for 7/17 Y-STRs using traditional CE; with MPS technology, results were obtained for 5/24 Y-STRs, 49/56 aiSNPs, 18/22 piSNPs, 15/27 autosomal STRs, 1/7 X-STRs, and 66/94 iiSNPs. Biogeographic ancestry for each set of skeletal remains was predicted using the ancestry feature and metapopulation tool of the Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database (YHRD), Haplogroup Predictor, and the Forensic Research/Reference on Genetics knowledge base (FROG-kb). Phenotype prediction was performed using piSNP data and the HIrisplex eye color and hair color DNA phenotyping webtool. mtDNA whole genome sequencing also was performed successfully. This study highlights the sensitivity of current forensic laboratory methods in recovering DNA from historical and archaeological human remains. Using advanced sequencing technology provided by MiSeq™ FGx (Verogen) and Ion S5™ (Thermo Fisher Scientific) instrumentation, degraded skeletal remains can be characterized using a panel of diverse and highly informative markers, producing data which can be useful in both forensic and genealogical investigations.

Keywords: FROG-kb; ForenSeq™; La Belle; MPS; Precision ID mtDNA whole genome panel; Robert Cavalier; Sieur de La Salle; X-STR; Y-STR; Yfiler™ Plus; ancestry SNP; biogeographic ancestry; lineage; massively parallel sequencing; mtDNA; phenotype SNP; skeletal remains.

Publication types

Historical Article

MeSH terms

Accidents / history
Body Remains*
Chromosomes, Human, Y
DNA Fingerprinting*
DNA, Mitochondrial / genetics
Electrophoresis, Capillary
Forensic Genetics*
France
Haplotypes
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
History, 17th Century
Humans
Male
Microsatellite Repeats
Phenotype*
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
Racial Groups / genetics
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Ships / history*
Texas
Whole Genome Sequencing

Substances

DNA, Mitochondrial