Use the following source to help you answer the following questions: http://jour
ID: 280641 • Letter: U
Question
Use the following source to help you answer the following questions: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0004838 (You should be able
1. Two “graves” were discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia. Describe the number of bodies in each grave.
2. When were these graves discovered?
3. One of the reasons that the family of Nicholas II was executed was because there was a fear that the White Russian Army would save them. Who was the White Russian Army?
4. What type of testing was done to confirm sex and familial relationships among the remains found in the mass grave?
5. Genetically, what does STR “stand” for?
6. What three types of DNA were used to test the remains found in a second grave?
7. Of the three types of DNA you listed in #32, which one would have been used specifically to identify Alexis?
8. What was the source of the DNA used to identify Alexis?
9. Was Anastasia in the grave in which Alexis was found?
Explanation / Answer
1. The larger grave had 9 bodies while the smaller grave had 2 bodies.
2. The graves were originally located in the late 1970s, but the official discovery of the larger mass grave was done in 1991. The smaller grave was officially discovered in the summer of 2007.
3. White Russian Army was the military arm of a confederation of anti-communist forces.
4. Nuclear DNA testing of five STR markers was used to confirm the sex of the skeletons and to establish a familial relationship among the remains found in the larger grave.
5. STR in genetics stands for Short Tandem Repeat. A short tandem repeat is a microsatellite, consisting of a unit of two to thirteen nucleotides repeated hundreds of times in a row on the DNA strand.
6. mtDNA, autosomal STR and Y-STR were used to test the remains found in second grave.
7. Y-STR testing would have been used specifically to identify Alexei.
8. Prince Andrew Andreevich Romanov, a distantly related cousin of Tsar Nicholas II was the source of DNA used to identify Alexei.
9. It was not conclusively established.
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