1. Introduction
Analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is commonly
performed in forensic investigations when the DNA in a sample
is degraded or the amount is not sufficient for a short tandem
repeat (STR) analysis [1,2]. Due to the considerably greater
number of mtDNA copies in each cell, the analysis of mtDNA is
often successful on challenging samples such as shed hairs,
bone and teeth [3]. However, the discrimination power of
analyses based on mtDNA is substantially lower than those
based on multiple unlinked autosomal DNA markers. In the
routinely performed mtDNA analysis, the two hypervariable
regions (HVI and HVII) of the mitochondrial control region
(the D-loop) are analysed using Sanger sequencing [1,2,4].
Approximately 600 base pairs are covered within these two
regions, corresponding to less than 4% of the entire
mitochondrial genome. In routine analysis, the existence of
two or more differences can exclude that the samples originate
from the same source, while samples with identical sequences
cannot be excluded as being from the same source. When a
single site differs between an evidence sample and a known
sample, in most cases the results are called inconclusive