Scientists in England said they have developed an expensive method called “high resolution melt curve analysis” or HRMA as a way of locating distinct features in the DNA structure of identical twins.

“What HRMA does is to subject the DNA to increasingly high temperatures until the hydrogen bonds break, known as the melting temperature,’’ Dr. Graham Williams, at the University of Huddersfield, told Analytical Biochemistry.

“The more hydrogen bonds are present in the DNA, the higher the temperature required to melt them,’’ Williams told the periodical.

The main idea behind the procedure is that gene mutations are affected by environment and lifestyle. The differences between identical twins could occur if, for example, one twin smokes and other does not – or if one of them is exposed several times to sunlight and the other one is not.

Williams and his colleagues believe changes such as those can be used to identify one DNA sample from another. And HRMA does not come cheap, requiring a number of high quality DNA samples to get the procedure going.

Williams told Analytical Biochemistry that the method can also help differentiate the DNA between young twins and adult twins, which was difficult to do before.

“We have (also) demonstrated substantial progress towards a relatively cheap and quick test for differentiating between identical twins in forensic case,’’ the scientist said.

Williams and his colleagues hope their study can lead to more efficient DNA profiling to identify investigators using crime scene stains.