Miklós Kásler - Zoltán Szentirmay (szerk.): Identifying the Árpád Dynasty Skeletons Interred in the Matthias Church. Applying data from historical, archaeological, anthropological, radiological, morphological, radiocarbon dating and genetic research (Budapest, 2021)

CHAPTER SEVEN – Genetic investigations

the detection of the alleles is 80-90%, depending on their length. The DNA samples of group 2, consisting of 11/52,11/53, Anne of Antioch and the fetus, were so degraded that only a few template DNA strands suitable for amplification could be found. Because of this, the detectability of the A-STR allele decreased dramatically based on the number of repeating units to a frequency of 10%. 20-33 repeat long alleles could no longer be viewed as realistically acceptable.

We studied the A-STR markers of skeleton II/52_3 ’

s femur

extensively, and during the course of this, we compared them to A-STR markers from other parts of the skeleton and to the marker pattern of Béla

Ill

’s skeleton as well. This series of studies is important, because it proves that the bones, which had become mixed up in the period following exhumation, were then correctly sorted using anthropological methods and reassembled into a whole skeleton, while at the same time, these data disprove the opinion of Éry

and

her working group that we no longer have the original skeleton in the Matthias Church.

Regarding the autosomal STR-marker investigation, it should be highlighted that the unique characteristics and structure of the chromosome region where a given marker is located affects detectability.

With a few exceptions, the A-STR marker results from Göttingen

and Budapest were identical, and the differences occurred mostly with bone samples with less-than-intact structures or at markers with long alleles. If we merge the A-STR data of skeleton 11/52 and Béla Ill

’s skeleton obtained through PCR analysis in the Göttingen

and Budapest laboratories, then we can build a marker set with 148