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Article: DNA Sequences, Unique
- Article from:
- World of Forensic Science
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Thomson Gale. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DNA Sequences, Unique
An increasingly important facet of
forensic science
is the use of techniques that detect and determine the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (
DNA
). When the aim of the investigation is to identify an unknown person, the exploitation of unique portions of DNA can be very useful.
DNA contains genetic information that is unique to each organism. The entire cellular DNA of any organism, bacteria, plant, virus, or animal represents the genome. A DNA sequence is considered to be unique if it is present in only one copy in a haploid genome (that portion of DNA that contains only a single copy of each
chromosome
). In humans, for example, a haploid number of ...