Behavioral Ecology Blog

Thanks to Hsien, I stumbled across this article in The Bulletin, a Philadelphia, PA newspaper… Basically it covers the military’s attempts at identifying otherwise unidentifiable remains of soldiers killed in action. They say:

While DNA has been used to identify the remains of POWs for years, until now, the DOD had to rely on the annual MIA/POW update meetings to get DNA samples. The Pentagon is now testing a program that mails DNA kits to families of missing servicemen in hopes of generating greater response. Pennsylvania is serving as a testing ground.

Relatives swab the inside of their cheeks and send the sample back to the Department of Defense, where it will be added to a DNA databank and matched with remains recovered from theaters of conflict.

“We’re still seeking to account for about 8,100 from the Korean War, 1,700 from Vietnam, and about 78,000 from World War II,” said Larry Greer, an official at the DOD. “It’s a huge task, and DNA is a part of it. With a bone sample from a serviceman and a saliva sample from someone in the maternal bloodline, we can identify a DNA match.”

Greer added that currently, the main focus is on World War II and Korea. “The percentage of DNA samples we have on hand for Vietnam is much higher than in the other wars. We’re much closer to identifying 100 percent of the remains than with other conflicts.”

Great, huh. Maybe the military is showing itself completely incapable of keeping soldiers alive, but at least they can identify they after they die… well… maybe not.

The problem is this- mitochondrial DNA is the wrong tool. It’s like using a magnifying glass to look at the moon. The resolution isn’t good enough. mtDNA might be able to identify you to ethnic group (but probably not), or your region of origin (but not likely), but it will certainly not give you an identity. mtDNA is essentially useless in modern human populations given migration is so frequent.

How many of you live in the same place as where your grandparents lived?? Get my point.

The big issue here is the mitochondrial mutation rate. It’s faster then most nuclear DNA, but still not all that fast. Roughly, there is 0.000001 mutations per site per generation… That means that there are a WHOLE lot of people with your mt haplotype…The second issue is that mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited- meaning that if we wanted to link you to your father, there would be no way to do it using mtDNA *unless your from Tennessee, that is*.

Funny thing- the military seems to know they’re screwing up…

“Mitochondrial DNA is an exclusionary method of identification. If the mtDNA sequence from an excavated body is the same as that of a living donor, it means they could be related.” But it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the person the family is looking for.

Christensen, whose job involves cutting sample pieces from the excavated bones and sending it to the Armed Forces DNA identification laboratory, cited one excavation where the mtDNA of two recovered servicemen was identical, but the passenger manifest said no one on the plane was related.

“They could have had a maternal ancestor as far back as 30 generations,” he said.

Well that will reassuring to the families, as they are presented the remains of someone “potentially” related, at least within 10’s of generations….

Why are they not using microsatellites, which are cheap, easy, and can distinguish between close relatives??? These markers are used extensively in forensics, where you want to the probability of non-identity to be minuscule. They can be used to establish the relationship between putative relative X and dead soldier Y. Hell, if they used the CODIS system, they could screen a huge number of putative relatives for those unclaimed bodies… I don’t get it…. Why would the military be doing this- unless they want people to remain identified..

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but what motivations would the government have to keep those soldiers identities unknown. I can’t think of ANY, and suspect that the mistake is secondary to incompetence (which seems to be pervasive in the Bush regime), rather than ill-will…