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Article: DNA Typing Systems
- 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 Typing Systems
Deoxyribonucleic acid (
DNA
) typing is a way to categorize an individual's genetic makeup in order to distinguish one individual from another. This has been made possible due to the rapid acceleration of genomics-based technologies coupled with the fact that human genomic DNA, which is comprised of
3 billion bases (letters in the DNA alphabet), is unique in only 0.1% of its makeup. Therefore, approximately 3 million bases differ from one person to the next, allowing scientists to use these differences to perform identity matches with a high degree of certainty. These variable regions of DNA can be used to generate a DNA profile of an individual, using samples from