Question

What is the exclusion principle? How is it used in forensic genetic analysis and in paternity determination?

Accepted Answer

Hi, everyone. Here's our next problem. A person cannot inherit an ally from a parent if that parent does not have that ally, which is a basic concept of genetics, known as the a principle of inheritance of acquired characters. B principle of non inheritance of alls C principle of population genetics or D principle of inheritance of alleles. Well, we're talking about someone not inheriting value if a parent does not have it, so that can lead us pretty easily to choice. B the principle of non inheritance of values. And basically says if you have a sample, a DNA sample, for instance, that contains a certain allele, the person cannot have inherited this ally if the parent does not have A. So it basically is also known as the exclusion principle and it allows you to rule people out. So that has important applications in paternity testing. If a child has an, a specific alley and the purported father does not, uh that would be something to rule out someone as a possibility. Uh Also in forensics, same thing can be used to rule out relatives, rule out suspects. Let's just look briefly at our other answer. Choices um related to the principle of non inheritance of values, you'd have choice d the principle of inheritance of values, which just would refer to those general principles of inheritance. Things like the principle of the segregation of all that you have um individuals inherit one ally from each parent, the parents chromosomes separate into different gametes. And then you have our principles of independent assortment that the different chromosomes segregate independently of each other when dividing into gamings. And the principle of dominance that a dominant allele can mask the phenotypic effects of a recessive one. So those general principles of Mendelian inheritance. Uh But again, here, we're talking about specifically the principle that a child cannot inherit a ally that a parent does not have. So that's why choice D is not correct choice. A, the principle of inheritance of acquired characteristics. There, we're talking about Lamar's ideas, Lamar and his famous giraffe necks, the idea of inheriting uh changes that occur in an organism's life. So that Lamar thought that adaptations that happen during the course of an animal's life or an organism's life could be passed on to offspring. But that's what we're talking about here. So, not a correct answer. And finally, to the principle of population genetics, this would just be the general term for what is population genetics and that study of genetic variation in populations. So things like the Hardy Weinberg equilibrium, looking at variation of alls across populations. But again, not what we're looking for here. So not our correct answer. So again, we talk about a concept of genetics saying that a person cannot inherit an allele from a parent that the parent does not have that allele. It is the choice be principle of non inheritance of all. See you in the next video.

What is the exclusion principle? How is it used in forensic genetic analysis and in paternity determination?

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