Reconstructing a missing mother's profile Forensic scientists from time to time must reconstruct the DNA profile for a missing person from analysis of DNA profiles of close relatives. In this case, a mother of four children is missing.
All children have the same biological father.
Results from a single locus probe DNA fingerprint analysis for the four children and their father are shown in the figure. Each parent contributes one set of alleles to each child. The autorad in this case contains DNA from four children and their father. Each child will share one band with the mother and one with the father. Then you know that the bands in the children not shared with the father must have been contributed by the missing mother.