1. On July 17, 1918, Bolshevik revolutionaries murdered Tsar Nicholas II, his wi
ID: 218117 • Letter: 1
Question
1. On July 17, 1918, Bolshevik revolutionaries murdered Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the Tsarina Alix, their daughters Ola, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, their son the Tsarevitch (crown Prince) Alexei and 4 loyal retainers. The bodies were not recovered for many years, fueling legends that Grand Duchess Anastasia had escaped, and allowing a woman named Anna Anderson to claim that she was Anastasia. In 1991 and in 2007, two mass graves with a total of 9 skeleton remains were unearthed at Ekaterinburg in Russia’s Ural Mountains. The table below presents partial DNA fingerprint analysis using 5 SSR loci and the sex chromosomal marker Amel of these skeletons. Entries separated by commas indicate alleles (number of repeating units).
a. What is the most likely identification for each skeleton (note: you cannot differentiate between the daughters based on this information alone, so put them all in the same category)? (2 pts)
b. Three PCR reactions failed (indicated by the -). If the reactions had worked properly, what alleles would you expect to see in each case? (1 pt)
c. Are any of the daughters identical twins? (1 pt)
d. How do these results repudiate the claims of Anna Anderson? (1 pt)
Locus A B C D E F G H Amel XX XX XY XX XX XX XY XX D3S1358 17, 18 17, 18 14, 17 16, 17 16,18 13,15 14,16 17,18 D5S818 12, 12 - 12,12 12,12 12,12 11,12 12,12 12,12 D13S317 11,11 11,11 - 11,11 11,11 10,14 11,12 11,11 D16S539 11,11 11,11 11,14 11,14 - 10,12 11,14 9,11 D8S1179 13,16 15,16 13,15 13,16 16,16 13,14 15,16 15,16Explanation / Answer
The STR results are given in Table. All allele was duplicated at least seven times. The sex-typing marker results amelogenin disclosed that G locus was from a male and confirmed that locus B was from a female. We saw no clue of contamination between STR profiles. Actually, from the 1458 amplified alleles above our recorded threshold at AFDIL among all autosomal as well as Y-STRs, 6 alleles (0.4%) only would be taken as false or drop-in artifacts. Half of these false alleles taken place at stutter positions of the accurate allele – showing that they were most similarly produced by favored amplification during the early rounds of PCR.
The parental connection between the skeletal remnants of Tsar Nicholas II, Alexandra and the aother remnants tested in this study. All the alleles from three daughters from the first grave can be described by sharing of half-allele with the Nicholas as well as Alexandra profile. Significantly, the two skeletal remnants from the newly identified grave indicate the similar genotypes sharing half allele with both Nicholas and Alexandra as presumed parents.
The most famous petitioner was Anna Anderson, a Polish laborer who converted many that she was Anastasia. With the findings of the first grave, and after DNA testing, Anna Anderson was disclosed as an imposter.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.