MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND DIAGNOSTICS sequence itself, but the number of times the sequence is repeated.

itself, but the number of times the sequence is repeated. You will inherit ½ of the TH01 from your father
LAB TOPIC 13: PATERNITY TESTING AND READING & INTERPRETATION and the other half from your mother. This means that each individual will have two numbers. In the right image,
Lecturer: Sir Niño Paolo Tan, RMT, MTMRS (c) the father has a TH01 of 8 and 11, meaning, in one part of his chromosome, the TCAT sequence is repeated 11
times (this number was also inherited from his parents). Still referring to the right image, the mother has 9 and 13,
DNA FINGERPRINTING: PARENTAGE AND KINSHIP TESTING while the child is 9 and 11. You can see that 9 is the same for both the mother and the child, hence, 9 is the
▪ another application of DNA fingerprinting and is still part of the civil investigation maternal marker which can be ruled out so that we can focus on the nonmaternal marker of the child which is 11.
▪ part from solving crimes, DNA evidences has been used to solve other issues, such as family relatedness To establish a match, the 11 marker must be present also in the father which can be seen on the right image. With
▪ Genetic markers are heritable, a parent passes on 1 copy of their marker genes to a child. This leads to the this, we can genetically link the DNA of the child to the DNA of the father. In conclusion, this child is really the
similarity of profile between related individuals. offspring of the father.
▪ the greater the degree of relatedness, the more likely it is that profile will be similar
▪ useful in parentage disputes and missing persons cases
▪ the traits that are being shown phenotypically (between a parent and a child) is similar between related
individuals since they are both phenotypically and genetically the same
▪ the greater the degree of relatedness, the more likely it is that the profile will be similar (the closer the familial
relation is, the more similar the DNA profile will be): that is why DNA fingerprinting technology is very useful in
parentage disputes and in missing persons cases
▪ identical by descent (ibd)
o an allele that investigators take a look into when they are trying to solve this kind of cases (e.g. parentage
disputes)
o 2 copies, or alleles, of the same genetic marker that have descended from the same ancestral allele
o 2 individuals who belong in the same family share (0,1,2) pairs of ibd alleles

for determining the degree of relatedness

between a potential father and a child
at the beginning, there should be a level of Example of Paternity Testing. The DNA profiles of
paternity
certainty on the identity of the mother and the two parents are compared with their child’s. The STRs
testing
child (meaning, before we begin the testing, we in the child that have been inherited from which
need to be sure that the woman is the biological parent is apparent.
mother of the child since it aids in the testing) ▪ an electropherogram from capillary
▪ since a child inherits half of his/her genes from the mother and the electrophoresis: we are looking at the peaks of the
other half from the father, then if we are certain about the relatedness graph (unlike in gel electrophoresis where we will
of the mother and the child then we can assume that all genetic markers be looking at the bands, however, both has the
that are not maternal in origin must have come from the father same principle)
▪ knowing that the mother and the child are already related, we can safely ▪ mother has a TH01 of 5 & 10, child (5, 7), and father
assume that the similar genetic markers we see from the child and the marker are maternal in origin (with that, (7,13)
we can just rule it out and focus more on the other genetic markers [nonmaternal markers]) ▪ if we know beforehand the maternal marker (in this
▪ these designated “nonmaternal markers” can conclusively identify paternity, as every nonmaternal marker case, 5), we can rule it out and focus on the
carried by a child must be carried by the father nonmaternal marker which is 7 which should be
o we will only look at these markers which should match between the father and the mother present on the father
▪ with the results of the peak of marker 7 on both the
child and father, we can establish paternity (child is
the biological offspring of the father)
▪ Is it possible that the child will only have one peak
or number? Yes, if that number is inherited both
from the mother and father which is called
homozygous. If both parents have a peak at 7, and
the child only has one peak at 7, this means that the
child has a homozygous TH01 7. (the example in
the image is heterozygous)
Example of Forensic Analysis. Comparing two
suspects’ DNA fingerprints to the one found from the
crime scene. The DNA fingerprint for Suspect 2
matches that taken from the crime scene.
▪ we ran an unknown DNA (found in the crime
scene) along with the other known DNAs (Suspect
1, Suspect 2)
▪ what we are trying to figure out is if the DNA found
in the crime scene can be linked or matched with
the two known DNAs run alongside with it
▪ in the image, Suspect 2 has a perfect match of
DNA to the crime scene’s DNA: hence, we can
exclude Suspect 1, while we can establish a link
with Suspect 2 being in the crime scene
▪ it is also possible that we will compare the
unknown DNA with the database
▪ principle of forensic DNA testing: we try to reduce
the potential number of suspects by excluding
individuals whose DNA cannot be matched or
linked to the crime scene, and we are looking for
the individuals whose DNA can be linked to the
crime scene just based on their DNA
▪ in actual investigations, after this test, further
investigations will be done

REFERENCES
▪ Jamieson, A. & Bader, S. (2016). Introduction to Forensic Genetics. In A Guide to Forensic DNA Profiling John
Wiley & Sons Ltd.
▪ BIO RAD Crime Scene Investigation Procedure Manual
▪ Dash, H.R., et. al. (2018). DNA Fingerprinting: Advancements and Future Endeavors. Springer Nature Singapore
TH01 is one of the 13 alleles we do testing on when we do DNA testing on forensic cases. TH01 represents the Pte Ltd.
microsatellite TCAT (repeat). The TCAT sequence (left image) was repeated 6, 7, and 8 times. What varies is not the

AIRAH M.