Abstract: In forensic science practice, age is an important individual information, and one of the indicators to be considered first to depict features of the suspect. Recently, DNA methylation has become a research hotspot in age estimation because of its hig accuracy and stability. New progress has been made in specificity of DNA methylation sites, age estimation in multiple tissues, DNA methylation age estimation of minors, sensitivity of age estimation, forensic practical applications, etc. At the same time, several studies also established more accurate statistical modeling methods, eliminated differences between different detection platforms, found appropriate number of sites in models and analyzed the influence of environment and diseases. This review summarizes these to provide references.

Key words: forensic genetics, DNA methylation, age determination, review