Alu is a transposable element that can be inserted into the human genome, enabling its use as genetic marker for ancestry differentiation,and thus identification. Due to new insertions, some humans do not have an alu insertions, while others may have accumulated mutations causing three types of polymorphisms, S1, S2 and L, the reference alu insertion, YB8 was useful as a standard to the comparison of nucleotide sequences changes to uncover the difference in the presence and absence of alu insertions, and the various alleles occurred by restriction enzyme digestion. In this lab, the presence of the alu alleles were investigated in the DNA of individual 1 and 2 to determine whether the alu elements can be used as genetic marker to identify race.
The null hypothesis stated that alu elements could not be used as a genetic marker to identify race. The alternative hypothesis (H1) stated that as individual 1 was an african american, they would have at least one alu allele thus, unable to have the S1/- allele, and the homozygous for the L …show more content…
It is suggested that future studies should consider the amount of water used to dilute the buffer when conducting electrophoresis, as that might affect the migration ability of the DNA. The experimental design should also consider the amount of restriction enzymes, and the amount of DNA used, if more fragments of the DNA are able to be cut, then more accurate representations of these sequences can be produced during electrophoresis. In addition, ensuring correct temperatures during the denaturing, annealing and extension steps could be beneficial to the creation of accurate PCR