D. Corach, G.A. Penacino, and A. Sala
Servicio de Huellas Digitales Geneticas, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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Soft cadaver tissues, even badly decomposed or putrid, may constitute a suitable source for DNA extraction whose typing will contribute to the identification of human remains. Soft tissues usually provide a higher DNA yield than bones or teeth. However, special care should be taken for an efficient conservation of the material. The regular preservation approach used is to freeze the remains in liquid nitrogen, -70^° C or at least
-20^° C. This strategy will allow long-term preservation. Remains collection in disaster areas may take days, even weeks, and in some instances, the freezing facility is not available. In order to prevent the loss of valuable remains, we developed inorganic salt mixtures as an alternative approach to preserve putrid cadaver tissues for more than two months at room temperature. Four different mixtures were assayed. A kinetic evaluation of DNA yield and quality was investigated. Only one salt combination allowed for complete DNA typing after two months. Different STR triplex systems were efficiently amplified; even the RFLP-VNTR-based typing approach was able to be performed with DNA extracted from salt mixture conservation. In addition to yield and typing efficiency, the reduction of offending odors is remarkable.