Product catalogue
The utility of dust as a forensic provenancing material. Exploring collection methods and detection limits for environmental DNA, elemental and mineralogical analyses of dust samples
<div>Environmental DNA (eDNA), elemental and mineralogical analyses of soil have been shown to be specific to their source material, prompting consideration of the use of dust for forensic provenancing. Dust is ubiquitous in the environment and is easily transferred to items belonging to a person of interest, making dust analysis an ideal tool in forensic casework. The advent of Next Generation Sequencing technologies means that metabarcoding of eDNA can uncover microbial, fungal, and even plant genetic fingerprints in dust particles. Combining this with elemental and mineralogical compositions offers multiple, complementary lines of evidence for tracing the origin of an unknown dust sample. This is particularly pertinent when recovering dust from a person of interest to ascertain where they may have travelled. Prior to proposing dust as a forensic trace material, however, the optimum sampling protocols and detection limits need to be established to place parameters around its utility in this context. We tested several approaches to collecting dust from different materials and determined the lowest quantity of dust that could be analysed for eDNA, geochemistry and mineralogy, whilst still yielding results capable of distinguishing between sites. We found that fungal eDNA profiles could be obtained from multiple sample types and that tape lifts were the optimum collection method for discriminating between sites. We successfully recovered both fungal and bacterial eDNA profiles down to 3 mg of dust (the lowest tested quantity) and recovered elemental and mineralogical compositions for all tested sample quantities. We show that dust can be reliably recovered from different sample types, using different sampling techniques, and that fungal, bacterial, and elemental and mineralogical profiles, can be generated from small sample quantities, highlighting the utility of dust as a forensic provenance material.</div>
<b>Citation:</b>
Nicole R. Foster, Belinda Martin, Jurian Hoogewerff, Michael G. Aberle, Patrice de Caritat, Paul Roffey, Robert Edwards, Arif Malik, Priscilla Thwaites, Michelle Waycott, Jennifer Young, The utility of dust for forensic intelligence: Exploring collection methods and detection limits for environmental DNA, elemental and mineralogical analyses of dust samples, <i>Forensic Science International </i>, Volume 344, 2023, 111599, ISSN 0379-0738, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111599. ISSN 0379-0738,
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2022-09-01T16:00:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2023-02-16T23:10:37
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147184
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Foster, N.R.
External Contact Author Martin, B.
Internal Contact Author Hoogewerff, J.
External Contact Author Aberle, M.G.
External Contact Author de Caritat, P.
Internal Contact Author Roffey, P.
External Contact Author Edwards, R.
External Contact Author Malik, A.
External Contact Author Waycott, M.
External Contact Author Young, J.
External Contact Publisher Elsevier Ltd
External Contact
- Name
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Forensic Science International
- Issue identification
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Volume 344 (2023) 111599
- Purpose
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Publication in scientific journal (Forensic Science International)
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
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Data Store directory containing the digital product files
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- Keywords
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soil
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- Keywords
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dust
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- Keywords
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forensic
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- Keywords
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provenance
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- Keywords
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intelligence
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- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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Soil sciences not elsewhere classified
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Inorganic geochemistry
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Mineralogy and crystallography
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Environmental geography
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
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CC-BY
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4.0
- Addressee
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details User Any
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- License
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- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
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© 2023 The Authors
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Classification system
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Australian Government Security Classification System
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was informed by
- Title
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Forensic soil provenancing in an urban/suburban setting: a sequential multivariate approach
- Citation identifier
- 144564
- Citation identifier
- 77ec218b-b525-4d73-a5a4-58ef070a653b
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was informed by
- Title
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Forensic soil provenancing in an urban/suburban setting: a simultaneous multivariate approach
- Citation identifier
- 145461
- Citation identifier
- 6d6d100c-6b53-4b78-98e1-56b36b74b4cd
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- OnLine resource
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Link to the Journal Article
Link to the Journal Article
- Distribution format
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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Journal article for submission to Forensic Science International
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
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urn:uuid/6de1e7af-f0a4-4682-9baa-1853282a406c
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GeoNetwork UUID
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- English
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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Journal Article / Conference Paper
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/147184
- Date info (Creation)
- 2022-11-07T03:16:18
- Date info (Revision)
- 2022-11-07T03:16:18
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
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Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
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Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551