{"id":50348,"date":"2025-06-15T14:34:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T09:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=50348"},"modified":"2025-06-16T17:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T11:48:12","slug":"dna-identification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/dna-identification\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA Identification"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>DNA Identification Latest News<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad, authorities are using DNA analysis to identify the remains of those killed in the accident. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>About DNA Identification<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the gold standard for <\/span><b>identifying human remains,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> especially after mass fatality events in which bodies might not be easy to identify otherwise.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Collection and Storing Samples of DNA<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As soon as an individual dies, their <\/span><b>DNA begins to degrade<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DNA <\/span><b>survives <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">much better in <\/span><b>cold and dry conditions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, than when it is hot and humid. Once collected, stored in as cool and dry an environment as possible.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DNA samples should be <\/span><b>frozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or, in the case of soft tissues (skin, muscles, etc.), they may be <\/span><b>stored in 95% ethanol.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>DNA<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from <\/span><b>soft tissues degrades much faster<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> than that from hard tissues (bones and teeth).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is because cells in<\/span><b> hard tissues are largely protected<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the effects of putrefaction and decomposition.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Methods to Analyse DNA Samples<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Short Tandem Repeat (STR) Analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It evaluates <\/span><b>short tandem repeats,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which are essentially short repeating sequences <\/span><b>of DNA.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">STRs are used for DNA identification as they <\/span><b>widely vary between individuals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cAfter analysing 15 or more of these hyper-variable regions of DNA\u2026 the resulting profile can be used to ascertain family relationships with a high degree of confidence,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">STRs are <\/span><b>typically found on nuclear DNA<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which is located within the nucleus of a cell.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Therefore, to carry out STR analysis it is essential that the nuclear DNA extracted from the <\/span><b>sample is not degraded.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is used when nuclear DNA is degraded or unavailable.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mitochondrial DNA is found within the <\/span><b>cell\u2019s energy-producing organelles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> known as mitochondria.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As mtDNA is <\/span><b>present in multiple copies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> within the cell, it is easier to recover from human remains that are not well preserved.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is used for identification because mtDNA is <\/span><b>passed down by the mother, unchanged, to all her children.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This means that samples from a person\u2019s remains can be matched with reference samples from their <\/span><b>mother, maternal grandmother, sibling, maternal aunts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or uncles, and distant relatives as long as they belong to the <\/span><b>maternal line of inheritance.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Y Chromosome Analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Humans have two types of <\/span><b>sex chromosomes, X and Y<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: biological males typically have one X and one Y chromosome, and biological females typically have two X chromosomes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this method, a panel of <\/span><b>STR on Y chromosomes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, passed <\/span><b>on from father to son<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is examined to match the remains of the victim with their male relatives.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis can be useful when close relatives are not available for comparison: any <\/span><b>member of the paternal line<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including brothers, paternal uncles, and paternal male cousins, may be used for matching,\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) Analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is used when the DNA to be analysed is highly degraded.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A SNP is a <\/span><b>variation in the DNA sequence<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where a single base \u2014 A, C, G, or T \u2014 at a specific location differs among people.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Given that SNPs are <\/span><b>unique to each person<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, they can be used for identification purposes with the help of reference samples taken from the victim\u2019s personal belongings such as <\/span><b>a toothbrush and hairbrush.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-sci-tech\/air-india-plane-crash-dna-identification-10067029\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DNA identification is the gold standard for identifying human remains, especially after mass fatality events in which bodies might not be easy to identify otherwise. Read more about DNA Identification, Methods, Analysis, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":50447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[852,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-50348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-dna-identification","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}