6. How do you know if the halibut you purchased at thesupermarket is really halibut? To identify the sourceof a biological sample, scientists PCR amplify andthen sequence a region of DNA known to vary between species. For animals, this DNA region is a648–base pair portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene. The sequence of this mtDNAregion acts as a so-called DNA barcode because adatabase exists that contains the sequences of thismtDNA region that are unique for hundreds ofthousands of animal species.a. Why do you think that a region of mitochondrialDNA is used for barcoding animals, as opposed toa region of nuclear genomic DNA?b. A single pair of PCR primers can be used tobarcode any species of fish. Explain how this ispossible.c. List criteria that scientists would have consideredwhen determining which mitochondrial DNAsequence to use for barcoding animals.
6. How do you know if the halibut you purchased at the
supermarket is really halibut? To identify the source
of a biological sample, scientists PCR amplify and
then sequence a region of DNA known to vary between species. For animals, this DNA region is a
648–base pair portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene. The sequence of this mtDNA
region acts as a so-called DNA barcode because a
database exists that contains the sequences of this
mtDNA region that are unique for hundreds of
thousands of animal species.
a. Why do you think that a region of mitochondrial
DNA is used for barcoding animals, as opposed to
a region of nuclear genomic DNA?
b. A single pair of PCR primers can be used to
barcode any species of fish. Explain how this is
possible.
c. List criteria that scientists would have considered
when determining which mitochondrial DNA
sequence to use for barcoding animals.
Animals can be barcoded or identified genetically by the method of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) barcoding. In this method, the animal species are identified based on a short segment of DNA from a specific gene. In the given case, the halibut can be identified using the DNA barcode of halibut by matching its DNA sequence with the fish.
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