Mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited and found in large quantities in human cells. mtDNA analysis can supplement STR analysis or can often be successfully analyzed when conventional DNA analysis has failed, such as in highly aged or degraded samples. This mtDNA technology may also be useful for comparing profiles to suspects who are not willing to provide a sample.

Sorenson Forensics has now fully validated and implemented techniques to sequence two hypervariable regions of the mitochondrial genome and is ready to accept casework samples for this type of analysis.