Evaluation of methods for single hair DNA amplification

Because of the low amount of DNA in single hairs, it may be difficult to obtain reliable genotypes for forensic and conservation genetics studies. We therefore compared different methods for reliably genotyping single hair samples. Our results indicate that preliminary whole genome amplification can increase the likelihood of successfully genotyping a single hair compared to other commonly used protocols. The difference between the methods is small for single locus comparisons, but it becomes more important in multi-locus comparisons. The economic and time costs of the whole genome amplification may prevent its large-scale use in non-invasive monitoring programs. Nevertheless, it may be a very useful approach for the analysis of especially valuable samples.