{"id":39804,"date":"2025-03-25T21:22:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T15:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=39804"},"modified":"2025-03-25T21:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:02:15","slug":"dna-role-in-identification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/25-03-2025\/dna-role-in-identification","title":{"rendered":"DNA\u2019s Role in Identification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Syllabus :GS 3\/Science and Tech <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • DNA has been instrumental in solving cold cases by analyzing profiles from archived crime scene materials. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • It  is the hereditary material in humans and most organisms, with nearly every cell containing the same DNA.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • It is primarily found in the cell nucleus as nuclear DNA, though a small amount exists in mitochondria as mitochondrial DNA. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • DNA is made up of four chemical bases<\/strong>: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T), which pair up to form base pairs (A with T, C with G). <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n
      \n
      \"DNAs<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
        \n
      • These bases are attached to sugar and phosphate molecules, forming nucleotides that create a double helix structure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • The sequence of these bases encodes information for building and maintaining organisms, similar to how letters form words.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • DNA can replicate, making exact copies of itself, which is crucial for cell division, ensuring that new cells contain the same DNA as the original.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        DNA\u2019s and Identification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • DNA acts like a biological fingerprint<\/strong>, used to uniquely identify individuals, much like an Aadhaar number does for social security.\n
            \n
          • DNA is present in every cell of the body, and each cell contains 46 DNA molecules\u201423 inherited from the mother and 23 from the father.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • DNA is packed in chromosomes. For example, chromosome 3 contains 6.5% of the total DNA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            Polymorphisms<\/strong>
            – Polymorphism in genomics refers to the existence of different forms of a DNA sequence among individuals or populations. 
            – They are small differences in DNA between individuals, and they help in tracing ancestry by identifying variations inherited from parents<\/strong>.
            Use of Polymorphism<\/strong>



            Short Tandem Repeats (STRs)<\/strong>
            – STRs are short DNA sequences repeated multiple times (e.g., GATCGATCGATC).
            – STRs are polymorphic, meaning unrelated individuals often have different numbers of repeats in specific STRs.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

            Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • PCR is used to amplify (copy) specific DNA sequences, even from small amounts of DNA.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • The process involves separating DNA strands, binding primers to target sequences, and using DNA polymerase to replicate the sequence. It can create millions of copies in about 50 minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

              Applications of DNA Fingerprints<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
                \n
              • DNA fingerprints are used in forensic science, paternity testing, disaster victim identification, and organ donation matching.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • They can also help solve cold cases by identifying suspects or exonerating wrongly accused individuals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                Importance\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
                  \n
                • DNA is highly stable, and scientists have successfully extracted DNA from ancient human remains (e.g., 65,000 years old).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • This stability makes DNA useful in solving crimes from archived materials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                  Source :TH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  DNA has been instrumental in solving cold cases by analyzing profiles from archived crime scene materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39804"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39817,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39804\/revisions\/39817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}