DNA is material that makes up chromosomes that contain the

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DNA is material that makes up chromosomes that contain the master code that instructs all cells what to do.

DNA fingerprinting is important to solve a crime. The police and many other court use DNA fingerprinting as evidence in court cases. A piece of a chromosome that dictates a particular trait is called a gene. Structurally, DNA is two strands of genetic material spiraled around each other. Each strand contains a sequence of bases, also called nucleotides. A base is one of four chemicals that are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. The two strands of DNA are connected at each base. Each base will only bond with one other base, as follows: Adenine will only bond with thymine, and guanine will only bond with cytosine. The chemical structure of everyone's DNA is the same. The only difference between people or any animal is the order of the base pairs. There are so many millions of base pairs in each person's DNA that every person has a different sequence.

Using these sequences, every person could be identified solely by the sequence of their base pairs. However, because there are so many millions of base pairs, the task would take a long time to accomplish. Instead, scientists are able to use a shorter method, because of repeating DNA patterns. These patterns do not however, give an individual fingerprint, but they are able to determine whether two DNA samples are from the same person, related, or non-related people. Scientists also use DNA to give people an idea of what their children may look like at any age. By looking at the possible combinations, scientists can give you an image on a computer of how your child or children may look. The image has no proof that the child will look like that but it gives parent an idea. Those are just a few of the many way we us DNA today.