Abstract

TITLE: 16S rRNA: A RELIABLE MITOCHONDRIAL GENE FOR DNA AMPLIFICATION FROM OLD AND FRAGMENTED SAMPLES OF FORENSICALLY IMPORTANT BLOW FLIES (DIPTERA: CALLIPHORIDAE)

Naina Khullar and Devinder Singh*

ABSTRACT

Thousands of dried pinned insect specimens lying in various museums await their documentation in the molecular data base. The need of the hour is to molecularly analyze the extensive forsaken insect collections stacked in these museums. 16S rRNA holds a crucial role in the mRNA translation and remained highly conserved throughout the evolutionary process. As a matter of fact, it is a more reliable gene to infer phylogeny, as it is thought to be present in early forms of life. Being a mitochondrial gene, it also configures valuable traits like maternal inheritance, rare recombination and greater number of copies of mitochondria makes its extraction more certain. Museum samples belonging to four species of Calliphoridae were used for the present study and good amount of DNA was extracted. Amplification with 16S rRNA primer gave very clean bands, thus souping up the importance of 16S rRNA gene for species identification.

Keywords: 16S rRNA, mt.DNA, Blow fly, PCR.