Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Description of DNA Technology

Undoubtedly, DNA technology has revolutionized the world of science. Scientific fields of biochemistry, genetics, biology and forensic medicine, even changed by the use of this powerful technology. Deoxyribonucleic acid, known as DNA is the genetic material of an organism. This technology has solved many mysteries behind evolution, disease and even human behavior.

DNA technology is also widely used to verify biological relationships and the identity of persons living or dead. Major advances in DNA analysis have allowed DNA tests to be completed shortly.

There are many technologies used in DNA testing. The most common of which are electrophoresis, short tandem repeats (STRs), Chain Reaction (PCR), sequencing of mitochondrial DNA Restrictive Fragment Length Polymorphism or RFLP. A brief description of each technology is provided below.

Electrophoresis is a technique in separating DNA fragments by size through the introduction of an electric field in the DNA molecule. The DNA molecule is in a viscous medium, known as the gel. longer molecules and smaller separate due to their different abilities to pass through the gel.

Short tandem repeats (STR) is a type of DNA analysis conducted to examine specific areas in the DNA. All people have differences in certain regions of DNA. These differences are used to determine the identity of an individual.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a technique used to create exact replicas of DNA. Millions of repetitions are created allowing DNA testing to be performed on samples that are too small, like a pair of skin cells. The sample, although it should not be contaminated by DNA from another source.

The sequencing of mitochondrial DNA. There are two types of cells in DNA - nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA. There are cases where a sample is too old and no longer has nuclear DNA. MtDNA sequencing is a technique used to recover the mitochondrial DNA. Forensic uses of this technology on cases that are still unsettled after so many years.

Restrictive Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) DNA technology is one of the first technologies used in DNA testing and is no longer widely used. RFLP analysis of different lengths of DNA fragments from the digestion of a sample with a restriction endonuclease enzyme.

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