ELOVL2 Clock
Definition
A forensic age-estimation system based on bisulphite pyrosequencing of 5 CpG sites in the ELOVL2 gene promoter; validated in multiple independent European and Asian cohorts with a median absolute deviation of approximately 4-6 years.
- Target
- ELOVL2 gene promoter
- Marker type
- DNA methylation, bisulphite pyrosequencing
- CpG sites tested
- 5
- Accuracy
- Median absolute deviation approx. 4-6 years
Common questions
How does the ELOVL2 clock differ from STR profiling?+
STR profiling confirms identity by matching a known reference. The ELOVL2 clock instead estimates the biological age of an unidentified sample's donor, producing an investigative lead rather than a match.
What limits its accuracy in a given case?+
Tissue type, DNA quality and degradation, and the population the calibration was built on all affect the result. Predictions carry a margin of several years, so they narrow the age range rather than pinpoint it.
Related terms
- Bisulphite Conversion
- A chemical treatment that deaminates unmethylated cytosines to uracil, converting them to thymine upon PCR amplification; methylated cytosines are protected. Allows methylation...
- Cell-Free DNA (cfDNA)
- Short DNA fragments (~166 bp) circulating extracellularly in body fluids, shed from apoptotic and necrotic cells. In plasma, predominantly hematopoietic; in pregnancy,...
- CpG Methylation
- Addition of a methyl group to cytosine in a CpG dinucleotide. Methylation at age-associated CpGs increases or decreases with chronological age in...
- EPIC Array (Illumina)
- The Infinium MethylationEPIC v2.0 microarray measuring methylation beta values at approximately 935,000 CpG sites genome-wide; the current standard instrument for multi-CpG age-clock...
- EpiTYPER
- Agena Bioscience (formerly Sequenom) reagent system for quantitative methylation analysis via bisulphite PCR and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry; used for multi-CpG methylation profiling...
- HIrisPlex-S
- A 41-SNP externally visible characteristics (EVC) panel for simultaneous prediction of eye, hair, and skin colour, developed at Erasmus MC Rotterdam by...
- Horvath 353-CpG Clock
- A pan-tissue epigenetic age clock built on the methylation values of 353 CpG sites from the Illumina 450K array; developed by Steve...
- MiRNA (microRNA)
- A small non-coding RNA (21-23 nt) that regulates gene expression post-transcriptionally. Different tissues and body fluids express different miRNA sets; forensic miRNA...