Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
How long do DNA test results take?	denberg	12/14/03
How long do DNA test results take? I was always under the impression - I think I'd read it somewhere years ago - that DNA tests took weeks to come through. Yet the tests on Saddam seem to have come through within hours of capturing him. Can someone explain this to me? (I am a layman with no biochemistry background). Many thanks, Paul, UK.
Answered By		Answered On
MisterBio		12/17/03
Hi Paul; It can be done in a few hours. I understand they had samples of his DNA prior to his capture and it was a matter of collecting epithelial cells from his mouth to compare. It is done by running the DNA samples by electrophoresis on a gel. I' not an expert on the procedure but I think the DNA has to be increased and that may take some time. There may be new techniques to do that now. I didn' answer this question when you posted it because I don' know of new procedures to increase the DNA. Once they have enough to run, it is subjected to a restriction enzyme that cuts the DNA at specific sequences and then run it on an electrophoresis gel and separated by electrical charge, the smaller pieces moving faster, separating them by size. If the known DNA is compared to the unknown, it will show in a few hours if they are both separating the same size segments. I hope this makes sense. MisterBio

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