Solving The Mystery Of The Romanovs

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DNA is
passed on from the mother. This information becomes useful when using them
for identification purposes.
In any given cell, there are thousands of copies of mitochondrial
DNA. This relative abundance of mitochondrial DNA can be used by
scientists to obtain DNA from samples where genomic DNA analysis is
difficult of impossible. The first question was which, if any, of the
bones found belonged to the Czar. To answer this, mitochondrial DNA was
obtained eight adult male femur bones found in the grave. Then using a
program called ClustalW, the mitochondrial DNA from many of the Czar's
maternal relatives were compared to the bones. It was discovered that the
mitochondrial DNA of femur number 4 was an exact copy of that from the
relatives. This lead scientists to believe that this bone belonged to the
Czar.
The next task was to discover which of the bones belonged to
Czarina and her three daughters. To answer this, the mitochondrial DNA of
the female femurs in the ...

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