Comparing Genetic and Physical Anthropological Analyses for the Biological Profile of Unidentified and Identified Bodies in Milan

settings Order Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Comparing Genetic and Physical Anthropological Analyses for the Biological Profile of Unidentified and Identified Bodies in Milan by Elena Pilli 1,† [ORCID] , Andrea Palamenghi 2,3,† [ORCID] , Alberto Marino 4, Nicola Staiti 4, Eugenio Alladio 5 [ORCID] , Stefania Morelli 1,*, Anna Cherubini 4, Debora Mazzarelli 2, Giulia Caccia 2, Daniele Gibelli 3 and Cristina Cattaneo 2 1 Laboratorio di Antropologia Molecolare Forense, Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via del Proconsolo 12, 50122 Florence, Italy 2 LABANOF—Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via L. Mangiagalli 37, 20133 Milan, Italy 3 LAFAS—Laboratorio di Anatomia Funzionale dell’Apparato Stomatognatico, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via L. Mangiagalli 31, 20133 Milan, Italy 4 Reparto Carabinieri Investigazioni Scientifiche di Parma, Sezione Biologia, 43121 Parma, Italy 5 Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. † These authors contributed equally to this work. Genes 2023, 14(5), 1064; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14051064 Received: 20 March 2023 / Revised: 8 May 2023 / Accepted: 9 May 2023 / Published: 11 May 2023 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Identification of Human Remains for Forensic and Humanitarian Purposes: From Molecular to Physical Methods) Download Browse Figures Review Reports Versions Notes Abstract When studying unknown human remains, the estimation of skeletal sex and ancestry is paramount to create the victim’s biological profile and attempt identification. In this paper, a multidisciplinary approach to infer the sex and biogeographical ancestry of different skeletons, using physical methods and routine forensic markers, is explored. Forensic investigators, thus, encounter two main issues: (1) the use of markers such as STRs that are not the best choice in terms of inferring biogeographical ancestry but are routine forensic markers to identify a person, and (2) the concordance of the physical and molecular results. In addition, a comparison of physical/molecular and then antemortem data (of a subset of individuals that are identified during our research) was evaluated. Antemortem data was particularly beneficial to evaluate the accuracy rates of the biological profiles produced by anthropologists and classification rates obtained by molecular experts using autosomal genetic profiles and multivariate statistical approaches. Our results highlight that physical and molecular analyses are in perfect agreement for sex estimation, but some discrepancies in ancestry estimation were observed in 5 out of 24 cases.