Vidaki, AthinaKalamara, VivianCarnero-Montoro, ElenaSpector, Timothy DBell, Jordana TKayser, Manfred2023-01-252023-01-252018-05-142073-4425http://hdl.handle.net/10668/12461Monozygotic (MZ) twins are typically indistinguishable via forensic DNA profiling. Recently, we demonstrated that epigenetic differentiation of MZ twins is feasible; however, proportions of twin differentially methylated CpG sites (tDMSs) identified in reference-type blood DNA were not replicated in trace-type blood DNA. Here we investigated buccal swabs as typical forensic reference material, and saliva and cigarette butts as commonly encountered forensic trace materials. As an analog to a forensic case, we analyzed one MZ twin pair. Epigenome-wide microarray analysis in reference-type buccal DNA revealed 25 candidate tDMSs with >0.5 twin-to-twin differences. MethyLight quantitative PCR (qPCR) of 22 selected tDMSs in trace-type DNA revealed in saliva DNA that six tDMSs (27.3%) had >0.1 twin-to-twin differences, seven (31.8%) had smaller (0.5 twin-to-twin differences. MethyLight quantitative PCR (qPCR) of 22 selected tDMSs in trace-type DNA revealed in saliva DNA that six tDMSs (27.3%) had >0.1 twin-to-twin differences, seven (31.8%) had smaller (0.1 twin-to-twin differences, seven (31.8%) had smaller (enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/DNA methylationIllumina 450K arrayMethyLightbuccal cellscigarette buttsepigenomicsforensicsindividual identificationmonozygotic twinssalivaresearch article29758014open access10.3390/genes9050252PMC5977192https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/9/5/252/pdf?version=1526445137https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5977192/pdf