At 02:05 PM 6/14/2011, Gurl wrote:
> Woman alleged to be the mother of two woman. However, siblings remember
>the possibility that the mother of one of the girls, was actually the
>sister of the alleged mother. That the "mother" took her sisters
>daughter and raised her as her own.
>Since mt-DNA follows the maternal line, how is one to be able to
>determine using DNA if the two woman are sisters?
Right, mt-DNA wouldn't help. But autosomal DNA typing, which is cheaper and
more common (e.g. routine for paternity testing) will to an extent
depending on luck distinguish the two scenarios.
>If the father is different (as I suspect would be the case) what other
>definitive evidence could be gather using DNA to determine if the woman
>are of the same mother?
Nothing in the real world is ever definitive. Not 100%.
>There is the possibility of gathering DNA from both "daughters" and a
>brother. Father is deceased.
Given the availability of the brother, the evidence is likely to be very
strong -- about a 95% chance to have 99% certainty one way or the other
assuming 50% each way a priori. It just a matter of finding a lab that is
willing to do the testing and knows how to analyze the result -- which in
practice probably means that they use the DNA-VIEW software (disclosure --
software that I provide).
Charles Brenner
http://dna-view.com
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