In your opinion, is the Alu element a good marker for DNA identification in forensic science?

Question

why and why no?

my lecturer was asking us to research on this but i couldnt find any!!??

Answer 1

Perhaps you should refine your question. Do you mean 'to identify the DNA molecule', or 'to identify an individual from his/her DNA'?

Alu sequences are abundant, but they're only present in primates, maybe only in apes. And they stopped transposing some thousands years ago, so they're mostly in the same position in all humans - there's not enough variation to design a DNA fingerprinting test from them.