To date DNA fingerprinting in forensics has been limited to identifying
human suspects. However, DNA fingerprinting has a wider application especially
involving environmental forensics. Soil from a region exhibits particular
physical or chemical properties that are unique. The current analysis of soil
in a crime scene is limited to physical constituents such as the type of rock,
minerals, vegetation, fossil, glass, paint, asphalt, etc. that are found in
the sample. These analyses are used to compare the crime scene soil with the
soil sample found associated with the
suspect. These results will enable the forensic expert to place the soil
to a particular location. It appears that this is an area where metagenomic
analysis will increase the probability of determining the origin of a soil
sample. Soil metagenomics addresses the genetic structure of a sample and
can provide a soil DNA microbial fingerprint. Molecular methodologies such
as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of select molecular targets can be
used to uncover the structure the microbial communities. Microbial communities
can be monitored using a recently developed amplicon length heterogeneity
(ALH) DNA fingerprinting technique.
