VNTR Analysis of the Romanov Remains

Nature Genetics 6, 1994 by Peter Gill, et. al.

Tsar Nicholas, Tsarina Alexandra and their five children were reported to have been assassinated in the Russian Revolution along with the Royal Physician and three servants. It was reported that the bodies were eventually placed in a shallow grave. When the gravesite was located and opened up, Russian forensic experts were able to re-assemble the bones into nine skeletons - the Tsar, Tsarina, three children, the physician and three servants. No evidence was found for one of the daughters or the son, Prince Alexei.

The bones contained numerous indications of a violent death from bullets and stabs. This corresponds to the description of the actual assassination. In addition, the teeth contained fillings of a material associated with royalty.

An analysis of the DNA from the bones was performed on DNA amplified from five different short tandem repeats (STR) of chromosomal DNA. The result is show below.

In each case, the purported daughter has a STR genotype consistent with the purported parents. STR analysis of the remains of the physician and the three servants indicated that the remains of these four individuals were not those of members of the Romanov family.

DNA sequence analysis of two hypervariable regions of mitochondrial DNA showed identical sequences for the three daughters and the Tsarina, as would be expected for a maternally inherited character. In addition, the same sequence was found in the current Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip) who is related to the late Tsarina through a maternal line. The same regions of mtDNA for the Tsar had a different sequence from the Tsarina but matched with two living relatives of the Tsar who are related through a maternal line.