The Heart of King Louis XVII

King Louis XVI, ruled France, with his Queen, Marie Antoinette, from 1774 to 1792.  When Austria and Prussia declared war on France, Marie Antoinette was accused of passing military secrets to the enemy.  On August 10, 1792 the royal family was arrested on suspicion of treason and imprisoned.  On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted and executed on the guillotine.  Antoinette was cruelly treated during her final days of captivity.  Her children, including Louis XVII, were taken from her, and her best friend, the Princess de Lambelle, was killed and her severed head was put on a pole and paraded in front of the Queen.  Antoinette was executed by the guillotine on October 16, 1793, at the age of 37.  She was executed without proof of the crimes for which she was accused.  Louis XVII, age 8 at the time of his father's execution, automatically became King Louis XVII.  Held captive like a caged animal, monarchists were unable to free him.  The subject of his ultimate fate remained controversial for centuries.  The official record indicates that he died in prison at age 10 from tuberculosis.  The doctor who performed the autopsy, Philippe-Jean Pelletan, stole the heart, and pickled it in alcohol.  Despite the aforementioned and hundreds of books on the controversy, many speculated that he had escaped his captors and was survived by royal heirs. In early 2000, scientists performed preliminary DNA tests on the alleged heart of Louis XVII and compared it to DNA from a lock of hair taken from Marie Antoinette as a child.  The results indicated that the heart and hair from the queen shared mitochondrial DNA. In order to conclusively resolve this mystery, Philippe Delorme, a recognized expert on this account, organized two independent tests.  Jean-Jacques Cassiman, a professor of genetics at Belgium's Louvian University, conducted one test; Ernst Brinkmann of Germany's Muenster University conducted the second.  The results showed that the consenses mitochodrial DNA sequence from the heart was indentical to that of the Queen, Marie Antoinette. As a result of the DNA authentication of the organ's identity, French royal decendents and supporters buried the heart next to the remains of his executed parents, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, in the cathedral of Saint-Denis, outside of Paris.

Thomas Jefferson- A Case for Paternity Testing

A Case for Paternity Testing Thomas Jefferson (1743-1819), the third President of the United States, is credited with many great accomplishments, including the Declaration of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition and the founding of the University of Virginia. Contrasting these great triumphs was the accusation in 1802, during his first term as President, that he had fathered illegitimate children with Sally Hemings, a slave at his home, Monticello. While this has remained a subject of controversy for over two centuries, a DNA study, reported in the journal Nature, proveds strong evidence indicating that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one and most likely all six of Sally Hemings; children. Y Chromosome Every individual is a mosaic of their mother and father resulting from a blending of the DNA they receive from each.  An exception is the Y chromosome, which is found only in men and is passed down unchanged from father to son just like a surname.  Any sons a man fathers will also carry this identical Y chromosome, making it easy to track through generations. DNA Study In order for Y chromosome analysis to answer the question of paternity, an unbroken line of male descendents from both Jefferson and Hemings' sons was required.  As Jefferson's only son by his wife died in childhood, the investigators used descendants of Field Jefferson, the president's paternal uncle. The study compared 19 genetic markers on the Y chromosome from five Jefferson descendants and one male line descendent of Eston Hemings, Sally Hemings' last son, born in 1808.  Analysis of the Jefferson and Hemings lines revealed an identical genetic match of a distinct genetic profile that is conserved within the Jefferson family. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, who owns and operates Monticello, commissioned a research committee to evaluate the DNA study.  The committee concluded there was a high probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered Eston Hemings, and that he most likely was the father of all six of Sally Hemings' children appearing in Jefferson's estate records.

Twins

Twins of the World Approximately one in every fifty Americans is a twin, two thirds of which are fraternal and one third identical.  Triplets occur once in every 8000 deliveries. Identical twins are formed when one egg is fertilized by a single sperm cell and then divides within the first few days of pregnancy.  If division of the egg occurs after 8 days, this can result in conjoined twins, also known as Siamese twins.  Twins produced by this process are referred to as identical since their DNA sequence is identical.  While the twins are identical genetically, this often does not apply to the actual physical or behavorial traits.  Generally their traits are similar, however they can differ.  The occurrence and distribution of identical twins in the population appears randomly and does not matter when, where, or to whom they were born. Fraternal twins are formed when two eggs are independently fertilized by two sperm cells.  Fraternal twins do not have identical DNA but will have half of their DNA in common, just like siblings of the same parents that are born at different times.  Fraternal twins can either be of the same sex or different sex. The occrrence of fraternal twins varies substantially in frequency around the world.  They are common in the pregnancies of older women, especially common in African, and relatively rare among those of Asian heritage. Twin classification done at delivery often results in misidentification.  For example, approximately 25-33% of identical twins have two sets of chorionic membranes.  Unless a DNA or other blood test was performed it is difficult to accurately determine if twins are fraternal or identical. Forensics DNA crime scene evidence from an identical twin can hinder prosecution because two people have identical genetic markers.