DNA Fingerprinting Applications

1. Paternity and Maternity Basic biology tells us that you inherit genes from your parents. Did you know that those genes in your DNA can be tested to find out who your real father is or who your adopted parents are? It's pretty cool stuff. In today's society, a lot of single mothers are rasing kids by themselves. Dad runs away and leaves mom by herself and for the longest time there was no proof that he was the father. With DNA fingerprinting, he can be ordered by the court to be tested and if he's the dad, he can be ordered to pay child support to help the mother out.

2. Criminal Identification and Forensics A lot of bad stuff goes down in this field. Bank robberies, shootings, and even murder. At the scene of a crime, if someone accidentally leaves a fingerprint or a piece of hair, investigators will take that item and run it against a criminal DNA database. If there is a match, then they can find out who did the crime and arrest them. Criminal identification and forensics is probably the field where fingerprinting is most widely used.

3. Personal Identification As mentioned in previous pages, everyone has their own DNA code. It's unique to them, kind of like a barcode would be for something that you buy at the store. Some people suggest that in the future this code might be imprinted into a microchip or something so that every person can be identified, allowing the government to completely take control of everyone. It's a great idea, but probably not very practical. For now, the DNA fingerprinting applications in this field are a bit more limited. For now, personal identification through this process is generally only done in forensics when trying to find out who remains belong to.

4. Predicting Diseases Fingerprinting can also be used to "predict" whether or not someone will have a certain disease like diabetes, or cystic fibrosis. While this application for fingerprinting is still in the beginning stages, it's possible that in the future, mom and dad may be able to "design" you to be the perfect kid. Watch the movie GATTACA to get more information about this.

5. Pet Breed Identification The same thing applies with your dog or cat as it does for you. A dog and cat have a unique "barcode" as well, and this is very important when it comes to breeding. Pet parents can find out the genetic history of a girl and a boy cat before they're mated. If the genes are bad in either one, then the breeder knows it's probably not a good idea to let them have kittens. Breeders need to make sure that kittens or puppies that are "pure bred" don't have something else (like a mut) mixed in because that means they could have serious health problems later on.