Posibles usos y limitaciones del RNA codificante y no codificante en estudios forenses

profiling of diferent types of RNA (p articularly mRNA and miRNA) could provi de complementary information to the STR DNA anaysis at some criminal cases and postmortem forensic studies. It has been re ported that mRNAs are useful at a) body fluid and tissue identification, b) determin ing the causes and circumstances of death, c) establishing the antiquity of woundS or biological stains and c) estimating the Po st Mortem Interval (PMI). However, mRNA profiling is limeted by its postmortem inestability and low integrity. Th is disadvantatge led to the estudy of miRNAs , already proven to be good markers of specific b ody fluids. This review is aimed to summarize what is currently known about difere nt types of RNA (structure, origin, biogenesis, function, degradation, postmortem stability and integrity, etc) and their potential usages, describing their strengths and weak nesses and providing solutions for the latters. Using this report as a guide, scientists could improve the efficiency of their future studies by comparing different methods of analysing RNA for forensic purposes and identifying gaps in the current knowledge. Key words : miRNA, mRNA, gene expression profile, pos tmortem changes, RNA stability (RIN)