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Encyclopedia entry: DNA fingerprinting
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to the Body
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to the Body 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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DNA fingerprinting also known as
DNA typing
or
genetic fingerprinting
,
is a method for identifying individuals by the particular structure of their DNA. It gained its name because the structure of the DNA of each person is different, and hence, just as each of us is unique with respect to the pattern of our fingerprints, so we can be identified from our DNA.
As well as containing the 100 000 or so
genes
that encode the structure of the thousands of
proteins
from which human beings are constructed, there are large regions of our DNA that do not consist of genes and appear to serve no useful purpose. Part of this functionless, ‘junk’ DNA is made up of long stretches of ...