Objective: We report
the results of nuclear DNA analyses of Napoléon the First (Napoléon Bonaparte; 1769-1821).
Design: His genomic DNA was extracted from dandruff adherent to his hair, coming
from a lock of his hair dating from the year of 1811. Results: We obtained the complete
STR (short tandem repeats) profile of Napoléon, based on fifteen autosomal loci.
On this profile, ten loci (D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, D3S1358, TH01, D16S539, D2S1338,
vWa, D18S51 and FGA) are heterozygous; the most frequent alleles in Caucasians are
present for only seven (allele 8 for TPOX and allele 11 for D5S818, allele 13 for
D8S1179, allele 10 for D7S820, allele 9.3 for THO1, allele 12 for D16S539 and allele
24 for FGA) of the homozygous and heterozygous loci. Conclusions: So the discriminating
power of this sort of genetic profile is elevated, permitting useful comparisons
to other STR profiles in the future. Finally, an analysis of fifteen Y chromosomal
STRs from the dandruff of this lock of hair confirms allele values of Napoléon already
obtained or deduced for the corresponding loci in previous determinations.
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