In forensic science, how is mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) typing most commonly used?

• A. To determine a suspect’s Y-chromosome haplotype to trace paternal lineage using markers found only in males
• B. To analyze the hypervariable regions of mtDNA, which is abundant and maternally inherited, enabling identification from degraded samples such as hair shafts, bones, and teeth
• C. To uniquely identify individuals by profiling highly polymorphic STR loci in nuclear DNA, which is inherited from both parents
• D. To measure the number of mtDNA molecules per cell to estimate a person’s age at the time a biological sample was deposited

Answer: (B)