Chapter 3: Forensic Biology

_____ provide scientific analysis, evidence evaluation, and consultations to various criminal justice agencies for the investigation of criminal cases.

They provide expert testimony related to the resolution of criminal cases to the courts.

Functions in evidence recognition, documentation, collection, and preservation.

Functions in the analysis of friction ridge detail in fingerprints.  Activities include visualization, recording, comparison, storage, and recovery of these prints.

Functions as the Identification and quantification of drugs present in submitted evidence.

Determination of concentrations of substances and their metabolites in biological fluids or tissues.

Investigation of forgeries, tracings, disguised handwritings, computer manipulation of images, and recovery of altered documents. Analysis of papers, inks, toners, word processors, typewriters, copiers, and printers.

Analysis of transferred evidence such as hairs, fibers, soil, paints, and glass.

_____ utilizes scientific techniques for the examination of evidence, the reconstruction of a crime scene, the identification of biological fluids, and the comparison of individual characteristics of biological evidence.

Refer to the unique characteristics of both the evidence and a reference sample such as fingerprints, which share a common origin to a high degree of certainty.

An example of biological evidence possessing individual characteristics.

______ profiling can compare individual characteristics of DNA evidence with a known reference sample.

A _____ often serves as an expert witness whose testimony provides professional opinions about the evidence analyzed.

Qualified based on his or her knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, and may give an opinion to the court that is relevant to the analyses conducted.

A ______ participating in a criminal investigation is often responsible for estimating the time of death.

It is the identification and examination of human skeletal remains.

An ______may reveal an individual’s origin, sex, approximate age, race, and the presence of a skeletal injury.

A ______ may also assist in creating facial reconstructions to aid in the identification of skeletal remains or may be called on to help collect and organize bone fragments in the course of identifying victims of mass disasters such as plane crashes as well as victims in mass graves discovered after wars or genocides.

The study of insects in relation to a criminal investigation.

This forensic discipline is valuable for estimating the time of death when the circumstances surrounding the crime are otherwise unknown.

They participate in the identification of victims whose bodies are left in an unrecognizable state.

They can analyze the marks left on a victim and compare them with the tooth structures of a suspect to make a comparison.

The human ______ were discovered in 1900 by Karl Landsteiner in a study of the causes of blood transfusion reactions.

Primarily responsible for the detection and identification of biological material on physical evidence.

The _____ contains all the necessary biological information for cellular and organ structure and function.

The human nuclear genome, a set of ___ chromosomes, contains approximately 3 billion base pairs.

The ________ was initiated in 1990 to sequence the entire human nuclear genome.

The ____ contains genes and intergenic noncoding sequences.

The coding regions of genes are called _____ and are separated by introns.

The _____ is a template for protein synthesis in which the sequence is based on a complementary strand of DNA.

Through the process of _____, the introns are removed and the exons are joined, producing the spliced mRNA form, which can be used for protein synthesis via the translation process.

Repeat units placed next to each other in an array.

____ can be found at centromeres and telomeres consisting of regions composed of long stretches of tandem repeats.

Form arrays of tandem repeats with a repeat unit length from several to hundreds of base pairs.

Also known as Simple Sequence Repeat, the repeat unit length can be 2–6 bp long.

Randomly located throughout the human genome.

The mobile elements change their locations.

During transposition, _____ are excised from one site and inserted at a new site in the genome.

________ duplicate themselves during transposition and propagate throughout the genome.

a copy of the original retrotransposons is generated at the new site and the original copy is retained.

The transposition of retrotransposons which requires an RNA intermediate.

The differences between individual genomes that occur at the DNA level.

A DNA polymorphism with alternative forms of a chromosomal locus that differ in nucleotide sequence.

A DNA polymorphism that differs in the numbers of tandem repeat units.

Many DNA polymorphisms are useful for genetic mapping studies and hence are called _______.

Alternative forms of DNA polymorphisms.

The same allele is present in both homologous chromosomes.

Two different alleles present in homologous chromosomes.

A combination of alleles at a given locus.

The genotype for a panel of analyzed loci.

In 1984, Sir Alec Jeffreys developed a DNA profiling technique using a ______ involving multilocus profiling and later followed by single-locus profiling.

In the mid-1980s, Kary Mullis and his coworkers developed the ________, which amplifies a small quantity of DNA.

The application of _____ makes forensic DNA analysis possible when only minute quantities of DNA can be recovered from a crime scene, for example, from hairs and cigarette butts.

The first forensic application of a PCR-based assay utilizing SNPs at the _______ locus was developed in 1986.

_______ at the D1S80 locus has also been implemented in forensic laboratories

A small-size VNTR marker that can be amplified by PCR.

The United States has selected ______ for the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). These national DNA databases play important roles in solving criminal cases.

It is maternally inherited genetic material and is therefore particularly useful for human identification.

These are paternally inherited so they can be used for paternity testing.