What is it about short tandem repeat DNA that makes it useful for DNA fingerprinting?

Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 8:24 pm  
Comments (1)

a. every racial and ethnic group has inherited diff short tandem repeats
b. the sequance variation is acted upon differently by natural selection in diff enviornments
c. the number of repeats varies widely from person to person or animal to animal

please explain
thanks!!

How accurate is DNA testing that gives ethnicity results? How can you best interpret the results?

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 5:36 pm  
Comments (2)

In the MRCA (most recent common ancestor) If the test says you have DNA in common with an ethnic group that samples were taken from one group in the United States(it's state specific) and the percentage was one of the higher percentages could you accurately assume the ancestry comes with in the past 200 years?
I've taken the test already. My family may be some tough cookies to convince of the results