DNA Fingerprinting :: Technology, Science

desoxyribonucleic acid reproduceIt is widely known that describely individual has a DNA indite as unique as a fingerprint. Actu whollyy, over 99% of all 3 billion nucleotides in human DNA which we inherit from each parent are identical among all individuals. However, for every 1000 nucleotides that we inherit there is 1 site of variation or polymorphism, in the population. These      DNA polymorphisms change the length of the DNA fragments produced by the digestion of travail enzymes . The resulting fragments are called restriction fragments length polymorphisms. Gel electrophoresis can be used to separate and determine the size of the RFLPs. The exact number and size of fragments produced by a specific restriction enzyme digestion varies from individual to individual.      DNA fingerprinting has proved valuable, non only for convicting felons and exonerating the innocent, but also for establishing maternity or paternity and proving fami ly relationships. much exotic uses include the identification of missing children in Argentina, soldiers killed in war, and change surface the body of Nazi physician Joseph Mengele, the so-called "Angel of Death."The way it started          The thoroughgoing techniques involved in genetic fingerprinting were discovered serendipitously in 1984 by geneticist Alec J. Jeffreys of the University of Leicester in Great Britain while he was studying the gene for myoglobin, a protein that stores oxygen in muscle cells. He found that the myoglobin gene contains some(prenominal) segments that vary in size and composition from individual to individual and that amaze no apparent function. Jeffrey called these segments minisatellites because they were small and they surround the part of the gene that truly serves as a genetic bluprint.