What is DNA?

What is DNA? Where is it found?
DNA is the basic building blocks of the genetic makeup, and is found in a variety of places in the body such as: blood cells, skin cells, tissues, muscles, bone, teeth, hair, and saliva. What is mitochondrial DNA?

Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA in a eukaryotic cell, and can be inherited from one’s mother. What is CODIS? How does it work?
CODIS is a computer software that contains DNA profiles of convicted offenders, murders, missing persons, crime scene evidence, other of that sort. What are complimentary base patterns? Why are they important? Compliment bases are guanine always pairs to cytosine, while adenine always pairs to thymine. These are collectively referred to as nucleotides. They are important because these four bases are the components of DNA. Their chemical interaction is what causes DNA to form a double helix structure What is RFLP? What are some of the limitations of this technique? Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism is a method used to study DNA. One of the reasons that this test became less useful is because it requires an excessive amount of DNA. Critical Thinking Questions

Why do you think DNA has had such an impact on forensic science? I think DNA is such an important factor of forensic science because it could lead you to the suspect in charge of the crime. What do you think would be some of the challenges in collecting DNA evidence? How would you overcome these challenges? I think some of the challenges would be the factor of corrupting or contaminating it with dirt or other substances. I would potentially try to collect more than one sample of the evidence if possible to lower the risk of not have a piece to the puzzle sort of speak is the evidence was contaminated in a way. Compare and contrast nuclear DNA with mitochondrial DNA. Which one would you want to use in a criminal investigation if you had the choice? Nuclear DNA is within the nucleus of the cell and Mitochondrial DNA is outside of the nucleus of the cell. They both give information towards the individual. If I had a choice in which one I would rather investigate I would choose nuclear DNA.