The microevolution of Alu element TPA-25 was tested in the experiment through the examination, observation, and analysis of population alleles distribution under the Hardy-Weinberg Theory of Genetic Equilibrium. Alu elements affect the genome by causing insertion mutations, recombination between elements, gene conversion, and alterations in gene expression. In the lab PCR was used to amplify a short piece of DNA from human genome which allowed us to look for a DNA sequence called an Alu element. Electrophoresis was used to separate DNA fragments of different sizes. The data indicated that the most individuals had the Alu element TPA-25. According to the results x2 was 1.842 because number of homozygous AA individuals without Alu insertion was 5, number of homozygous BB individuals with Alu element was 22 and heterozygous AB individuals were 13. I failed to reject my hypothesis because the p value was greater then 0.5 and less then 0.1.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the population genetics lab was to determine the presence of the Alu element in human genome using polymerase chain reaction. Polymerase chain reaction was used to genotype a sample population. PCR is used to produce multiple copies of particular sequences of DNA (Vliet 1993). Polymerase chain reaction is based on the analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences which also been used in the analysis of complex DNA samples. The advantage of mitochondrial based DNA analyses was that there are many mitochondria per cell and many mitochondrial DNA molecules within each mitochondria which makes mitochondrial DNA a naturally amplified source of genetic variation. Alu elements are the most abundant repetitive elements. Alu elements are short interspersed elements that amplify in primate genomes through a process termed retroposition (Batzer 1994). Alu elements comprise an estimated 5% of the human genome (Vliet 1993). Alu are inserted at specific chromosome locations and does not appear to
Cited: Vliet, Kent. 1993. A lab manual for integrated principles of biology: Part one- BSC 2010L. Pearson custom publishing. University of Florida. Batzer, Mark A. 1994. African origin of human specific polymorphic Alu insertions. Vol. 91: pp 12288-12292. Florida-Migration. http://www.city-data.com/states/Florida-Migration.html