Differential extraction uses a chemical called dithiothreitol (DTT) to disrupt the sulfur bonds in the coating of the sperm cell in order to extract its DNA.

Recent innovations have included the creation of primers targeting polymorphic regions on the Y-chromosome (Y-STR), which allows resolution of a mixed DNA sample from a male and female or cases in which a differential extraction is not possible. Y-chromosomes are paternally inherited, so Y-STR analysis can help in the identification of paternally related males.

Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalopathy syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive mitochondrial disease. Unlike typical mitochondrial diseases caused by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, MNGIE is caused by mutations in the TYMP gene, which encodes the enzyme thymidine phosphorylase.

Positional sequencing is a method of sequencing DNA that simultaneously generates information about both identity and location of nucleotide sequences. The method involves detecting the location of sequence specific recognition events (e.g., such as hybridization of probes of known sequence) on single DNA molecules.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technology to amplify specific DNA sequences. It uses a single stranded piece of DNA as a start for DNA amplification. Uniplex PCR uses only one starting point (primer) for amplification and multiplex PCR uses multiple primers. This way multiple genes can be targeted simultaneously.

Single molecule real time sequencing  is a parallelized single molecule DNA sequencing by synthesis technology. It utilizes the zero-mode waveguide (ZMW). A single DNA polymerase enzyme is affixed at the bottom of a ZMW with a single molecule of DNA as a template.

Sickle-cell disease is a hereditary blood disorder, characterized by red blood cells that assume an abnormal, rigid sickle shape. Sickling decreases the cells' flexibility and results in a risk of various life-threatening complications. This sickling occurs because of a mutation in the haemoglobin gene.

47, XYY is not inherited but usually occurs as a random event during the formation of sperm cells. An incident in chromosome separation during anaphase II (of meiosis II) called nondisjunction can result in sperm cells with an extra copy of the Y-chromosome. If one of these atypical sperm cells contributes to the genetic makeup of a child, the child will have an extra Y-chromosome in each of the body's cells.

Probe-target hybridization is usually detected and quantified by detection of fluorophore-, silver-, or chemiluminescence-labeled targets to determine relative abundance of nucleic acid sequences in the target.

Helicases are proteins that are a type of molecular motor. They use the chemical energy in nucleoside triphosphates, predominantly ATP, to break hydrogen bonds between bases and unwind the DNA double helix into single strands. These enzymes are essential for most processes where enzymes need to access the DNA bases.

A method has been developed to analyze full sets of protein interactions using a combination of 454 pyrosequencing and an in-vitro virus mRNA display method. Specifically, this method covalently links proteins of interest to the mRNAs encoding them, then detects the mRNA pieces using reverse transcription PCRs.

Fura-2 is a ratiometric fluorescent dye which binds to free intracellular calcium. It was the first widely used dye for calcium imaging, and remains very popular.

Cancers are heterogeneous populations of cells. When sequence data is derived from a whole tumor, information about the differences in sequence and expression pattern between cells is lost. This difficulty can be ameliorated by single-cell analysis.

The microarray-based gene expression profiling can be used to identify genes whose expression is changed in response to pathogens or other organisms by comparing gene expression in infected to that in uninfected cells or tissues.

Argininosuccinate synthase (ASS) is an enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of argininosuccinate from citrulline and aspartate. ASS is responsible for the third step of the urea cycle and one of the reactions of the citrulline-NO cycle.