NCJ Number
245529
Journal
Forensic Science International: Genetics Volume: 9 Dated: March 2014 Pages: 25-32
Date Published
March 2014
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the capability of Fluorescent Random Amplified Microsatellites (F-RAMS) in profiling hallucinogenic mushrooms to species and sub-species.
Abstract
The study concluded that F-RMAS is a fast, reliable, reproducible, and cost-effective method that can be adapted for the identification of any eukaryotic organism when genome sequence information is limited. Although the current study was limited by a small sample size, particularly regarding samples within the same species, the data showed the F-RAMS analysis of mushrooms has the potential to become a powerful molecular forensic tool for complementing chemical analysis. Thus, F-RAMS can be used to identify mushroom species and to individualize samples within the same species. Fifteen samples of Amanita rubescens and 22 samples of other hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic mushrooms of the genera Amanita and Psilocybe were profiled using two fluorescently-labeled 5' degenerate primers, 5'-6FAM-SpC3-DD (CCA)5 and 5'-6FAM-SpC3-DHB (CGA)5, which target different microsatellite repeat regions. Between the two primers, 5'-6FAM-SpC3-DHB (CGA)5 provided more reliable data for identification purposes. This was done by grouping samples of the same species and clustering closely related species together in a dendrogram based on amplicon similarities. A high degree of intra-specific variation between the 15 A. rubescens samples was shown with both primers, and the amplicons generated for all A. rubescens samples were organized into three classes of amplicons (discriminant, private, and marker) based on their individualizing potential. 3 tables, 3 figures, and 31 references