DNA Fingerprinting
Human identification is an essential part of individual-based assessments. DNA fingerprinting is a sophisticated approach of using the uniqueness of a person’s nucleic DNA in order to pragmatically identify him or her. It is stated that mitochondrial DNA can also be used in DNA fingerprinting due to the presence of highly polymorphic regions (Lackey, 2016). The DNA analysis is directly interlinked with DNA fingerprinting because both tackle the sequence features of the molecule. The former is a broader scope of DNA study, which allows researchers to not only understand the unique patterns of the hereditary molecule but also learn about the structural complexity and genetics.
DNA fingerprinting is often needed in the analysis due to the fact that revealing unique repeats and variative regions in both DNA and mitochondrial DNA is important for individual assessment. DNA analysis involves advanced sequencing techniques, such as new generation sequencing (NGS), which is critical for acquiring quick and elaborate data. This allows researchers to construct large databases in order to comparatively observe the regions of high variability, and thus, these fragments can be utilized in human identification. The application can be present not only in forensics but also in personalized medicine and genetic diagnostics.
Human Evolution
Transformation, in molecular genetics, is a change in the hereditary properties of cells as a result of the penetration of foreign DNA into them. It can be considered as an example of horizontal inheritance, which means that genes are pass from one organism to another, not through division or reproduction (Worrall, 2018). As a result, the transformation of the recipient cell can acquire and stably transmit to its offspring a sign that was previously absent from it, but that the donor’s cell had, for example, the antibiotic resistance gene.
Thus, the given process is highly important to analyze because it is one of the primary factors contributing to drug resistance. It is especially relevant because the current state of global antibiotics uses at the peak, which increases the overall likelihood of bacteria evolving strong resistance genes. The latter can be transferred to other types of bacteria, which are more deadly or pathogenic.
Transformation in many bacteria is a natural process that occurs in populations. At the same time, cells capable of absorbing and incorporating foreign DNA into their chromosome are in a state of transformational competence or readiness, which occurs at a certain period of the life cycle, such as the end of the growth phase. The development of competence can follow a cascade type, where cells that have become competent release a low molecular weight protein into the medium, which, being adsorbed on other cells, also makes them resistant.
The transformation mechanism involves the irreversible adsorption of the DNA of the donor cell on the surface of the recipient cell, and in most bacteria, DNA of any origin can be adsorbed. Since a number of transforming DNA fragments can simultaneously enter a competent cell, the total amount of absorbed DNA can be approximately equal to the size of the chromosome of the host cell. After double-stranded DNA penetrates the cell, one strand breaks down to mononucleotides and oligonucleotides, and the second is inserted into the chromosome of the host cell by its breaks and reunions. Subsequent replication of such a hybrid structure leads to the cleavage of pure clones of transformants, in the offspring of which a trait encoded by the incorporated DNA is fixed.
References
Lackey, A. (2016). Mitochondrial DNA analysis in human identification. ThermoFisher Scientific. Web.
Worrall, S. (2018). What Darwin didn’t know about evolution. National Geographic. Web.