dna

[unruliejulie]

I have just read a letter in the problem page of a magazine and it was from a man whos girlfriend had slept with his brother. She had had a baby but they didn't know who's it was. The girlfriend had refused a DNA test. Even if they had done one, could they tell with the two men being brothers? Wouldn't they share their DNA or would their be enough of a difference to tell?

[Champagne]

No, their DNA would not be the same. It would be a close match, but there would be differences. Certainly enough to distinguish between the two. Your DNA is as unique as your fingerprint!

[Octavius]

I doubt they would be able to tell. Yet.

Except for identical twins, each person's DNA is unique.

Half of the DNA is inherited from our father and the other half from our mother. Siblings (brothers or sisters) inherit different combinations of DNA from the same parents and are therefore different from each other.

The technology of DNA profiling doesn't yet allow the examination of every single difference between people's DNA. So it could be open to speculation.

[unruliejulie]

Thanks champagne,of course, just got me wondering how close within a family it was.

[WoWo]

However.... there are a number of types of tests generally the first test they would use wouldn't necessarily distinguish between brothers.

Of course in this case if a test were taken it would be under the knowledge that it would have to be the more advanced test

http://www.hsc.unt.edu/departments/pathology_a natomy/dna/faq.htm

[Katlise]

DNA is almost, but not quite as unique as a fingerprint. Identical twins have identical DNA, but they DO NOT have identical fingerprints.

Sorry - having a 'petty' moment there :-)

[unruliejulie]

so if someone was murdered by one of the identical twins and the police had some of the killers DNA, they would never be able to actually prove, by that method, which twin had comitted the crime?

[Katlise]

No, they wouldn't - frustrating eh?!