Lambert High School

• SCIENCE Anatomy

• Biotechnology Explorer™ Forensic DNA Fingerprinting Kit Instruction Manual Catalog #166-0077EDU The kit is shipped at room temperature. Open immediately upon arrival and store reagent bag at –20°C within 3 weeks of receipt. Duplication of any part of this document is permitted for classroom use only. Please visit explorer.bio-rad.com to access our selection of language translations for Biotechnology Explorer kit curriculum. Can DNA evidence solve human problems? DNA fingerprinting is now used routinely to solve crimes. In recent years, news stories have reported how miniscule amounts of DNA have been used to identify individuals involved in incidents even many years in the past, as well as exonerate innocent people from incrimination. The power of DNA as a tool for individual identification captures students’ imaginations. This activity provides in-depth instruction about how restriction enzymes cleave DNA, how electrophoresis is used to separate and visualize DNA fragments, and how these techniques can be combined to obtain a DNA fingerprint. Principles of restriction analysis, plasmid mapping and DNA fragment size determination can also be documented with this kit. Open the door to rich discussions about scientific, ethical, and legal implications of DNA profiling. DNA fingerprinting is used in medical and forensic procedures, as well as in paternity determinations to discern genetic relationships between individuals at the molecular level. This kit allows students to play the role of a forensic scientist and make a positive ID—that is, to simulate using real DNA as evidence and figure out for themselves: “Who done it?” In this activity, students analyze six different samples of plasmid DNA. One sample collected from a hypothetical “crime scene” and five samples obtained from “suspects” are digested with two restriction enzymes. The resulting DNA fragments are separated and visualized in agarose gels using Bio-Rad’s Fast Blast™ DNA stain. Based on the restriction fragment patterns, students compare the evidence and match one of the suspects’ DNA to the sample collected at the crime scene. As an alternative to the classical human forensic applications for this kit, have your students imagine they are high tech pathologists investigating an outbreak of an aggressive infectious disease that has never been seen before. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suspects that a new strain of bacteria has arisen that not only is the cause of the new disease, but also has acquired multiple resistance plasmids from some other bacterial strains. Their job is to develop a DNA diagnostic tool for identifying the culprit plasmids. They decide to use restriction enzyme analysis and “DNA electrophoresis fingerprinting” to identify and distinguish different suspect plasmids and track their spread through the environment. DNA from the cultures of a number of stricken patients has been isolated. Have your students identify the new killer bug before the pathogen gets out into the general population and starts a true epidemic! We strive to continually improve our Biotechnology Explorer kits and curricula. Please share your stories, comments and suggestions! You can download this complete instruction manual on the Internet. Visit us on the Web at explorer.bio-rad.com or call us in the US at 1-800-424-6723. This curriculum was developed in collaboration with Len Poli and Russ Janigian of the S.F. Base Biotechnology Program in San Francisco, California, and Peggy Skinner of the Bush School in Seattle, Washington. We’d like to thank them for their invaluable guidance and contributions to this curriculum. Biotechnology Explorer Team Bio-Rad Life Science Group 6000 James Watson Drive Hercules, California 94547 Biotechnology_Explorer@Bio-Rad.com Create context. Reinforce learning. Stay current. New scientific discoveries and technologies create more content for you