Practical Study guide Flashcards
(50 cards)
what is the 2+ 4 rule
it describes the melting temperature
for every A/T, add 2 degrees C
for every G/C add 4 degrees C
why do we add only 2 degrees for A/T
Adenine and Thymine only have 2 hydrogen bonds between them so it takes less overall energy to melt off the primers in AT rich regions
why do we add 4 degrees for G/C
Guanine and Cytosine have 3 hydrogen bonds between them which takes more energy to melt off the primers in GC rich regions
What is the PI?
it is the paternity index, it describes the probability that the alleged father gave an allele to a child in comparison to the likelihood that a random man gave the allele to the child
what does the PI help us determine
it helps determine if the alleged father is the biological father and it is not some random man
how do we calculate the PI?
The probability that the AF gave the allele to the child (0.5-1) / the probability that a random man gave the allele to the hild (frequency of allele in general population
if a man is heterozygous, what is the probability that he gave an allele to a child
0.5
if a man is homozygous, what is the probability that he gave an allele to a child
1
what is the combined PI (CPI)
it is the product of PI at all loci tested
how do we calculate the probability of paternity
CPI/ (1+CPI)
what does the probability of paternity help us determine
how probable it is that the alleged man is the father
what are the conditions to assign paternity in the PP
if PP > 99.9% paternity is assigned
what are short tandem repeats?
they are repetitive DNA sequences typically found in introns or non coding sequences of DNA
why are STR’s good markers for identity profiling
they are highly polymetric as different individuals may have different numbers of repeats
the allele frequency of repeats is fairly equal and evenly distributed throughout the population
they are small enough to be evenly be amplified by PCR
how is the amelogenin gene used for sex-typing
the amelogenin gene is is both the X and Y chromosome, but in the X chromosome there is a 6 base pair deletion that makes the subsequent PCR product shorter.
A shorter product will come out of the capillary electrophoresis tube faster and will be detected earlier than the Y chromosome will. This allows a distinct separation between the two peaks.
For individuals that are homozygous for the X chromosome (females), they will have one of these peaks
while individuals that have the X and Y chromosome (males), they will have two peaks that are separated by this 6 base pair deletion
these electropherogram differences allow the gender to be distinguished
how many amelogenin peaks will females have?
one shorter peak for the 6 bp deletion in the X
how many amelogenin peaks will males have
they will have two peaks, the earlier peak will be the shorter X chromosome and the later peak will be the Y chromosome
what is meant by multiplexing? What is one challenge that occurs with the design of multiplexing?
multiplexing is when more than one locus is amplified in a PCR reaction, it requires all primers to have similar annealing temperatures
how can we distinguish between multiplexed PCR products of the same size?
the PCR primers have been fluorescently tagged, so alleles of the same size have been assigned different fluorescent color tags that allow the overlapping alleles to be distinguished from one another
what are the steps to PCR
1) denaturation
2) primer annealing
3) primer elongation
4) cycling
what is the purpose of denaturation
we increase the temperature of the reaction ot break the hydrogen bonds between the double stranded DNA and allow it to become single stranded
what is the purpose of primer annealing
the primers hybridize to their complementary sequence and specify to the polymerase which DNA sequence is supposed to be copied
provides 3’ OH group required by polymerase to synthesize new DNA
qhat is the purpose of primer elongation
elongate primers towards eachother in 5’-3’ direction to create target DNA molecules
what is the purpose of cycling
allows us to repeat the PCR cycle numerous times on each of the newly synthesized target molecules