DNA profiling technologies

Genomic DNA can be exploited in a variety of ways to give information on the individuals bearing it. The first DNA-based approaches to organism identification were based on digestion of extracted genomic DNA by restriction enzymes and subsequent radioactive labelling-based probing of sequences. These methods were time-consuming and expensive.

Now simpler and very accurate methodologies are available. They are based on the overall structure of genomes, which together with the protein-coding portion (surprisingly small) are composed by long stretches of noncoding DNA, more prone to variation because it is less likely that such a variation would have detrimental consequences for the individual bearing it.

DNA profiling technologies are based on sampling a limited number of sites of genomic variation to produce a fingerprint of the analyzed genome which can reach the uniqueness of an individual. These technologies are based both on sampling sites of single nucleotide variation on the DNA and sites of tandem repetition of very short sequences. GENTRAS have implemented all these approaches and developed its own protocols, improved in sensitivity, potency and simplicity, to provide a complete platform of solutions for DNA tracing applications.