Revision summary
Jeffreys’s DNA fingerprinting and STR databases serve courts and disaster victim identification. PCR is the workhorse of pathogen testing, including COVID-19. Medical uses include screening, pharmacogenomics, and early gene editing. Pääbo’s aDNA methods serve prehistory, including Indian Harappan genomes. GM crops and wildlife barcoding are agrarian and forensic ecological uses. Consent and over-reading ancestry as race remain anthropological limits.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
DNA technology reads, copies, and sometimes edits genetic material. Its current practical uses run from courts and clinics to farms, ancestry, and pandemic tests.
Body
Identification and kinship
- Alec Jeffreys introduced DNA fingerprinting in 1984; STR profiles now identify suspects, exonerate the wrongfully accused, and match disaster victims when a reference exists.
- Paternity and immigration kinship tests use the same markers, which forensic anthropology now pairs with bone profiles.
- Databases such as national crime indexes raise liberty questions that anthropology of the state must notice.
Medicine and public health
- PCR, associated with Kary Mullis, underpins pathogen tests, including the COVID-19 diagnostic wave.
- Carrier screening, prenatal tests, BRCA and other risk panels, and pharmacogenomics tailor drugs to genotype.
- Gene therapy and CRISPR editing, after Doudna and Charpentier, are entering clinics for a few monogenic diseases, with ethics still contested.
Ancestry, ancient DNA, and population study
- Svante Pääbo’s ancient DNA methods reconstruct archaic admixture and prehistoric movement, as in Neanderthal genomes and South Asian aDNA from sites such as Rakhigarhi.
- Commercial ancestry tests are popular and often over-interpreted as race.
Food, environment, and industry
- GM crops, DNA barcoding of wildlife for poaching cases, and GMO labelling disputes are applied molecular biology in the agrarian and conservation field.
- Recombinant insulin and vaccines are older industrial applications that still matter.
Anthropological caution
- DNA can name a body and still not name a culture.
- Consent, caste politics of sampling, and the return of results to indigenous groups are part of current practice, not extras.
Flow diagram
Conclusion
DNA technology now identifies persons, diagnoses infection and risk, edits a few diseases, and reconstructs prehistory. The current scenario is laboratory power plus consent and interpretation, not a code that replaces society.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Genetic imprinting in human diseases
Next question on this syllabus topic (2022 · Q5(b)). View answer →
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Does aDNA tell us who has a right to land?
No. Prehistoric ancestry is not a land title. Living tenure, law, and politics decide rights.
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Is CRISPR already routine in hospitals?
It is a current application in a few trials and approvals, not a general hospital tool for all disease.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2026 · Q8(b) · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks
In what manner is our understanding of serogenetics and cytogenetics useful in reproductive biology? What are the major ethical issues involved in reproductive technology? -
2015 · Q5(e) · Anthropology GS 1 · 10 marks
DNA technology in Medicine.
More from this topic
Q8(b) · UPSC Mains 2026 · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks · Solution
In what manner is our understanding of serogenetics and cytogenetics useful in reproductive biology? What are the major ethical issues involved in reproductive technology?
Applications of Anthropology
Serogenetics uses blood groups and serum protein markers for paternity disputes, Rh incompatibility, and fertility-related polymorphism. Cytogenetics uses karyotyping to detect numerical and structural chromosomal defects behind miscarriage and congenital disorders. IVF, ICSI and PGD extend these tools into clinical reproduction. Ethical flashpoints include commercial surrogacy, commodification of reproduction, eugenic selection through PGD, and unclear parentage when donors are involved. India's ART and Surrogacy Acts, 2021, aim to regulate practice while protecting dignity.
Q8(c) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks · Solution
Examine the utility of human remains in forensic analysis. Discuss the facial reconstruction technique
Applications of Anthropology
Forensic anthropology estimates sex, age, stature and trauma from bones and teeth, and it records context. Krogman and Stewart standardised osteological identification. DNA STRs and dentistry confirm identity when references exist. Clyde Snow’s human-rights cases show remains as testimony. Facial reconstruction uses tissue-depth markers, as in Gerasimov and Gatliff, now often with CT and 3D prints. The face is an approximation to prompt recognition, not a certain portrait. Ethics include family consent and no racial or caste over-claim.
Q6(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Anthropology GS 1 · 20 marks · Solution
What are genetic markers? Discuss their applications in understanding population variation, disease association and forensics
Applications of Anthropology
A genetic marker is a heritable polymorphism that can be read in families or populations. Classical markers include ABO and proteins. DNA markers include SNPs, STRs, mtDNA and Y haplotypes. Population applications map variation and movement and undermine typological race. Disease applications include sickle-cell and malaria, HLA, counselling, and GWAS. Forensic applications include STR identification, mtDNA from degraded samples, and Y-lineage in mixtures. Lewontin’s within-group diversity and Jeffreys’s DNA fingerprinting are central names.