Are Fingerprint Patterns Inherited?

Abstract

Fingerprints are used as reliable identification because each person's fingerprints are
unique. But are these unique patterns created randomly or are they influenced by
genetics?

Objective

In this science project, you'll collect, categorize, and compare the fingerprints of siblings
versus unrelated pairs of individuals to determine if fingerprint patterns are inherited.

Introduction

During weeks 10 through 24 of gestation, ridges are formed on the epidermis,

which is the outermost layer of skin, on your fingertips. The pattern that these ridges
make is known as your fingerprint. Fingerprints are static and do not change with age, so
an individual will have the same fingerprint from infancy to adulthood. The pattern
changes size, but not shape, as the person grows. (To get a better idea of how that works,
you can model the change in size by inking your fingerprint onto a balloon and then
blowing up the balloon.) Since each person has unique fingerprints that do not change
over time, they can be used for identification. For example, police use fingerprints to
determine whether a particular individual has been at a crime scene. Although the exact
number, shape, and spacing of the ridges changes from person to person, fingerprints can
be sorted into three general categories based on their pattern type: loop, arch, and whorl.

The three fingerprint patterns are illustrated here (FBI website).

The DNA they inherit from their parents determines many other personal characteristics
and traits, like whether someone is right- or left-handed or the color of their eyes. In this
project you'll examine fingerprints from siblings versus pairs of unrelated individuals to
figure out if general fingerprint patterns are genetic or random.

Have you ever looked at two girls and said, "you must be sisters"? We can often tell that
two people are siblings because they appear to have several similar physical traits. This is
because children receive half their DNA from each parent. All biological siblings are the
mixture of both parents' DNA. This results in a greater degree of matching traits between
siblings than between unrelated individuals. Therefore, if DNA determines fingerprint
patterns, then siblings are more likely to share the same fingerprint category than two
unrelated individuals are.
Materials and Equipment

Before starting this science project, you should gather together these items:

• Black ink pad

• White paper
• Paper towel
• Moist towelettes for cleaning hands (cotton balls dipped in rubbing alcohol will
also work)
• Magnifying glass

Experimental Procedure

1. To start this science project, practice taking reliable clear fingerprints. Ask a
friend or family member to let you learn by using his or her fingers.
a. Use a moist towelette to clean the person's right index finger.
b. Thoroughly dry the finger with a paper towel.
c. Roll the right index finger on a black ink pad.
d. Then roll the inked finger onto white paper using light but constant
pressure.
e. Use another towlette to clean the person's inked finger.
f. Perfect your technique until fingerprints come out clear each time.
2. Make up a consent form for your project. Because fingerprints can be used to
identify people, you'll need their consent to take and use their fingerprints.
3. Take fingerprints of pairs of siblings and of pairs of unrelated people.
a. Make sure they sign a consent form BEFORE you take the fingerprint.
b. Use the cleaning and inking system you developed to take the fingerprint
of each person's right index finger.
c. Label each fingerprint with a unique code, which will tell you which pair
the fingerprint belongs to and whether that is a sibling pair or an unrelated
pair. An example of an appropriate code would be to give each pair a
number and each individual a letter. Siblings would be labeled as subjects
A and B while unrelated individuals would be labeled as subjects D and Z.
Thus, fingerprints from a sibling pair might carry the codes 10A and 10B
while fingerprints from a unrelated pair might be labeled 11D and 11Z.
d. Collect fingerprints from at least 15 sibling pairs and 15 unrelated pairs.
For unrelated pairs, you can actually use sibling 1A with sibling 2B since
these individuals are not related to each other. The more pairs you look at
in your science project, the stronger your conclusions will be! For a more
in-depth look at how the number of participants affects the reliability of
your conclusions, see: "Sample Size: How Many Survey Participants Do I
Need" at http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-
projects/project_ideas/Soc_participants.shtml.
4. Examine each fingerprint using your magnifying glass and characterize it as a
whorl, arch, or loop pattern. Fill out a data sheet like the one below.
 Fingerprint Category Category match?
Related Pairs (unique ID)
(arch/whorl/loop) (yes/no)

10A

10B

Fingerprint Category Category match?

Unrelated Pairs (unique ID)
(arch/whorl/loop) (yes/no)

11D

11Z
5. Compare the percentage of related pairs whose fingerprint patterns match to the
percentage of unrelated pairs whose fingerprint patterns match.
a. Are they the same? Which is higher?
b. What does this tell us about whether fingerprints are genetic?
c. Identical twins share 100% of their DNA. Does your data include any
identical twins? Do they have the same fingerprint pattern?

Variations

• How do your results change if you compare all 10 fingers, rather than just 1? Do
all 10 fingers from the same person have the same fingerprint?
• Toes also have ridge patterns. Do "toe prints" follow the same rules as
fingerprints?
• Are some patterns more common than others?
• If you make more quantitative measurements of the fingerprint patterns, can they
be used to predict sibling pairs? With what degree of accuracy?
• If fingerprints are unique, why do misidentifications occur in forensics? How easy
or hard is it to match a fingerprint with an individual?
• Read about statistics and use a mathematical test (like Fisher's exact test) to
determine if your findings are statistically relevant. To do this, you'll need to
make sure you understand p values and you'll need to think about whether your
sample size is large enough. Online calculators, like the one from GraphPad
Software, are good resources for this analysis.

Yeast Reproduction in Sugar Substitutes

Abstract

There's nothing quite like the smell of fresh-baked bread to make your mouth water! As
any baker can tell you, you can't bake bread without yeast. This project makes clever use
of bread dough to measure yeast reproduction three different ways, and investigates how
well yeast grow with sugar substitutes as a food source. Pass the butter, please!

Objective

The purpose of this project is to see if yeast will reproduce using various sugar
substitutes.

Introduction

Did you ever wonder how bread gets its "spongy" structure? If you've ever baked
homemade bread yourself, you know that you need yeast to make the bread dough rise.
Yeasts are single-celled fungi. Like the cells in your body, they can derive energy from
sugar molecules. They can also break down larger carbohydrate molecules (like starches
present in flour) into simple sugar molecules, which are then processed further.

Yeast can extract more energy from sugar when oxygen is present in their environment.
In the absence of oxygen, yeast switch to a process called fermentation. With
fermentation, yeast can still get energy from sugar, but less energy is derived from each
sugar molecule.

In addition to deriving less energy with fermentation, the end products of sugar
metabolism are also different. When oxygen is present, the sugar molecules are broken
down into carbon dioxide and water (plus energy that the yeast uses to grow and
reproduce). In the absence of oxygen, the sugar molecules are not broken down
completely. The end products are alcohol (with two carbon atoms) carbon dioxide (one
carbon atom), and water. Less energy is extracted from each sugar molecule: the energy
that could be extracted from the alcohol molecule if oxygen were present.

As you know, carbon dioxide is a gas (at least at room temperature and atmospheric
pressure, for you gas law aficionados). In bread dough, carbon dioxide produced by yeast
forms bubbles that make the dough rise, and give bread its spongy texture.

OK, so yeast can derive energy from simple sugars and complex starches. What about
sugar substitutes? This project is designed to find out. You will prepare several different
yeast solutions, some "fed" with sugar, others "fed" with sugar substitutes and still others
"fed" with only warm water. To measure the metabolism of the yeast under the different
conditions, you will collect the carbon dioxide gas from each solution.

Materials and Equipment

• dry yeast (buying a whole jar is probably more economical than individual
packets),
• sugar,
• sugar substitutes, for example:
o saccharin,
 o sucralose,
o aspartame (commercial name: NutraSweet),
o acesulfame potassium (also known as: Ace-K);
• warm water (typically 110°F–115°F, but consult the recommendations on your
yeast package),
• thermometer to measure water temperature,
• at least 6 empty plastic bottles (1-pint water bottles are good),
• 1 cap (must fit all bottles)
• plastic tubing,
• epoxy or silicone sealant,
• graduated cylinder (an empty plastic bottle can be substituted, if necessary),
• plastic tub or bucket,
• packing tape,
• water.

Experimental Procedure

1. Do your background research.

2. You will be collecting CO2 from the yeast by displacing water trapped in an
inverted graduated cylinder. Here's how to set it up:
a. Fill your plastic tub (or bucket) about one-third full with water.
b. Fill the graduated cylinder with water.
i. If your tub is big enough, fill the graduated cylinder by tipping it
on its side inside the tub. Allow any bubbles to escape by tilting
the cylinder up slightly, while keeping it under water. Keeping the
opening of the cylinder under water, turn it upside down and attach
it to the side of the tub with packing tape.
ii. If your tub is not big enough, fill the graduated cylinder completely
and cover the top tightly with plastic wrap. Quickly invert the
cylinder and place the opening in the tub, beneath the surface of
the water. Remove the plastic wrap. Attach the cylinder to the side
of the tub with packing tape.
c. The graduated cylinder should now be upside down, full of water and with
its opening under the surface of the water in the tub. It is ready to trap CO2
produced by your yeast.
3. Next, you need a way to bring the CO2 from the yeast to your gas collection
apparatus. You'll attach some plastic tubing to the bottle cap to do this.
a. Make a hole in your bottle cap, just big enough to insert the plastic tubing.
Get help from an adult if needed.
b. Insert the plastic tubing through the hole in the cap so that it sticks out
about 2 cm.
c. Seal the tube to the cap with epoxy or silicone sealant so that it is air-tight.
Allow the epoxy or silicone to cure fully before conducting your
experiment.
d. You'll attach this cap to your yeast bottle, and place the other end of the
tubing inside the inverted graduated cylinder. Any CO2 produced by the
 yeast will bubble up inside the cylinder, where it will be trapped. You can
measure how much CO2 is produced by seeing how much water is
displaced.
e. You can test your gas collection apparatus by blowing gently into the tube.
The bubbles you create should be captured inside the cylinder. (You'll
need to re-fill the cylinder before starting your experiment.)
4. When your gas collection apparatus is ready, you can start the actual experiment.
5. Label each of the bottles with the type of solution you'll be feeding the yeast (e.g.,
sugar, nothing, saccharin, sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame potassium).
6. You'll be making one solution at a time (unless you decide to set up more than
one gas collection apparatus). It is important to use the same water temperature
each time you make a solution, since yeast activity is temperature-dependent.
7. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar in 1 cup of warm water (110°F–115°F). When the
sugar is fully dissolved, add 2 teaspoons of yeast (this is about the same amount
as 1 packet of yeast), mix and pour into the appropriate bottle. Be sure to note the
actual temperature of the water in your lab notebook.
8. Cap the bottle tightly with your "tube cap," and place the open end of the tube
inside your gas collecting cylinder. Note the starting time in your lab notebook.
9. Within 5–10 minutes, the yeast solution should start foaming, and you should see
bubbles collecting in the graduated cylinder. Note the time when you first start
seeing bubbles in your lab notebook.
10. Decide how long to collect CO2 (somewhere between 30–60 minutes is probably
good, but you may need to adjust for your particular conditions). Use the same
amount of time for all of your tests.
11. When the time is up, note how much CO2 was collected.
12. Re-fill your gas collection cylinder, and carefully rinse out the yeast solution from
the bottle. You should run at least three separate trials for each food source.
13. For each of the sugar substitutes, use the properly labeled bottle. When preparing
your yeast solution, use the same temperature for the warm water and the same
amount of yeast (2 teaspoons). Use 1 tablespoon of the sugar substitute instead of
sugar.

Variations

• For another method of measuring the products of yeast fermentation, see the
Science Buddies project: Rise to the Occasion: Investigating Requirements for
Yeast Fermentation. You could use the method described in "Rise to the
Occasion" to test yeast's ability to use sugar substitutes as a food source.
• The procedure for making your yeast solutions is very similar to what many
bakers do when making homemade bread. It's called "proofing" the yeast. Before
the yeast is added to the dough, it is suspended in warm sugar water. If the yeast
foams after a few minutes, it is added to the dough. If not, the baker tries another
packet of yeast. If one of your sugar substitutes fails to produce CO2 during the
allotted time, is the problem the food or the yeast? To test if the yeast is the
problem, you could try adding sugar to the solution. If the yeast starts to foam
after a few minutes, you've proved that the yeast was not the problem.