At what temperature does DNA become unusable for identifying people?

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Clarification of Question by 911_researcher-ga on 08 Aug 2003 07:11 PDT

Dead people I mean. Like what temperature would a corpse have to be
burnt at for them to be completely unidentifiable

Very strange question...

For the DNA to be completely destroyed (covalent bonds broken), a
temperature of at least 400C would be required.

I arrived at the temperature by using the info on this page. The
temperature provided is more of an approximation than anything else.
http://www.mrs.umn.edu/~goochv/CellBio/lectures/chem/chem.html

On a side note, if you leave the corpse alone for long enough, the DNA
will be naturally decomposed.

REALLY long .....

Neanderthal DNA Sequencing
http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleo/neanderthal.html

-K~

Greetings, 911_researcher!

As I am fond of reading about forensic pathology, I want to mention
that I have read that when a human has been dead for decades or even
centuries, or when a body has been reduced mostly to crumbling bone
and ash due to a conflagration of extremely high temperatures, in
certain exceptional circumstances scientists have still been able to
extract viable DNA from the pulp deep in a surviving tooth.

I hope that you find this information helpful.

Regards,

aceresearcher