My husband is an identical twin and tonight our son who is only 5 stumped me with a question while we were talking. He asked if identical twins have the same fingerprints? I really do not know the answer and my husband is at work so I can't ask him. Anyone know? My guess would be no, but am not sure about identicals.
2007-01-08 17:40:25 · 20 answers · asked by P H 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
no they wouldn't cause they're not the same person.
2007-01-08 17:42:47 · answer #1 · answered by cavigirl17 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No because every person on this planet has their own unique fingerprint (even if they are identical twins or so forth). Even though the DNA of the identical twins are the same, but it does not mean every aspect is the same as well. Just like how many twins do not have the same personality as the other. It is just the same concept.
2007-01-09 01:44:22 · answer #2 · answered by Naka P 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would have to disagree with most everyone here and say that the fingerprints isn't the only way they both differ. Just cause they have identical DNA "fingerprints" doesn't mean you married just one of two people that could be your husband right?
2007-01-09 01:50:58 · answer #3 · answered by ppodjames 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Submitted by Adrian, a high school teacher in Pasadena, California.
My students ask me this question all the time and I am stumped. Are fingerprints the same for twins? That is, are they based on development, on the genetic code, or a combination of both? On a molecular level, would two twins have the same DNA fingerprint? (Basically, how genetically identical are they?)
answer
Provided by Max Heiman, HHMI predoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.
I have no doubt your students ask the "twins' fingerprints" question often—I've only received a couple dozen questions through the Ask a Scientist program, and you're already the second to ask about it! I always thought that identical twins did have the same fingerprints, but apparently this is not always true.
In humans (and in most animals), it is hard to predict how the body will take shape during development. Some things are programmed in the DNA, but most seem to happen by chance within the bounds of certain rules. Identifying those rules is a big challenge in developmental biology right now.
In fruit flies, for instance, breathing tubes extend from every cell to the surface of the organism to supply it with oxygen. The complicated branching pattern of these tubes is different in every fly, even ones with the same DNA. But developmental biologists are beginning to understand the rules behind this pattern formation: as cells need oxygen, they send out a signal that causes a tube to grow towards them. So even though every fly seems to have a different pattern, development of these breathing tube patterns is governed by programmed rules.
Fingerprints might be like this—partly genetically preprogrammed and partly made up during development.
As you know, there are different kinds of twins: identical and fraternal. Identical twins come from a single zygote—that is, the fusion of a single sperm cell with a single egg cell. Their DNA is as closely related as the DNA of your hand is to that of your foot—in other words, identical. (However, there are some very interesting exceptions. For example, the immune systems of identical twins might not respond the same way to a disease. Since immune cells rearrange their DNA semi-randomly, the twins would make different sets of antibodies.) But for the most part identical twins' DNA would be identical in sequence, and since the DNA fingerprint is a rough representation of sequence, their DNA fingerprints also would be identical.
Fraternal twins are as related as any pair of siblings. Therefore, their DNA is 50 percent identical. Their DNA fingerprints would also be 50 percent identical (as are the DNA fingerprints of any siblings, or of a parent and child).
I did find one article that I wanted to tell you about: "Comparative diagnoses of twin zygosity by SSLP variant analysis, questionnaire, and dermatoglyphic analysis." Behavior Genetics 1996;6(1):55-63. The authors are Elisabeth Spitz, Rene Moutier, Terry Reed, Marie Claire Busnel, Catherine Marchaland, Pierre L. Roubertoux, and Michele Carlier. Here is my understanding of their work based on reading the paper's abstract.
The authors of that article used three methods to try to determine whether twins are monozygotic (identical), meaning they have the same DNA, or dizygotic (fraternal), meaning they share as much DNA as brothers and sisters do. The three methods were DNA analysis (DNA "fingerprinting"); fingerprint analysis (actual fingerprinting), and having the parents of the twins fill out a questionnaire on how similar the twins are. The authors thought that DNA analysis would enable them to tell every time whether the twins were identical or fraternal. But this approach is still fairly expensive. They found that the questionnaire could correctly identify 97% of the twins as identical or fraternal. Surprisingly, old-fashioned fingerprinting (what they call "dermatoglyphic analysis") was correct only 86% of the time.
You also might like to read about a roundworm called Caenorhabditis elegans. Unlike human cells, C. elegans cells always develop exactly the same way. We know exactly where each cell comes from, starting with the one-cell embryo and ending with the adult worm that has about 1,000 cells in its body. These cells always do everything exactly the same way. For this reason, C. elegans has been a great system for learning about genes that control development.
Websites that describe C. elegans development include:
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~browder/worms.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~elegans/Video_archive/ video_archive.html
3/13/2000
2007-01-09 01:44:06 · answer #4 · answered by Elysia 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The basic answer is NO. Identical -- or monozygotic -- twins form when a single fertilized egg splits in two after conception. Because they form from a single zygote, the two individuals will have the same genetic makeup. Their DNA is virtually indistinguishable.
However, fingerprints are not an entirely genetic characteristic
2007-01-09 01:43:09 · answer #5 · answered by surfer_grl_ca 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
No one, no matter what can possess the same fingerprints, not even identical twins, they may look exactly the same to the naked eye, but each twin has their own unique characteristic traits.
2007-01-09 01:44:19 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
To date no two people have been found to have matching fingerprints, that is with about 70 million samples, and it is highly unlikely anyone does.
For PeachPie, take another look at your twins. Their Irises (the colored part around the pupil) is different. The Iris becomes set in it's pattern at about the 6 month period.
2007-01-09 02:02:59 · answer #7 · answered by srrl_ferroequinologist 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ONLY thing different with identical twins are fingerprints and footprints surprisingly :)
2007-01-09 01:43:02 · answer #8 · answered by digidudetim 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Good question. From wikipedia: Monozygotic twins generally look alike. Fine physical details such as fingerprints will differ.
2007-01-09 01:43:57 · answer #9 · answered by Andi 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no, identical twins are very similar but have slight differences, and every living person on the planet has a unique finger print
2007-01-09 01:43:50 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Nobody has the same fingerprints.
2007-01-09 01:49:57 · answer #11 · answered by supensa 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋