Reprinted with permission from Nakamura et al., "Variable Number of Tandem Repeat (VNTR) Markers for Human Gene Mapping" Science 235, 1619, (1987) fig. 3, Copyright 1987 American Association for the Advancement of Science. (www.sciencemag.org)
The figure shows the DNA profiles for one VNTR locus of 16 different individuals. Each lane shows the DNA from one individual. We can see that everyone has a different profile. The lane denoted by M is a reference with DNA fragments of known sizes. This allows us to calibrate the sizes of the other bands. We first notice that every individual is different. Next we can see that most individuals possess two bands, corresponding to two different alleles. Occasionally, as in individual 8 we only see one band. In this individual, both alleles have the same size.
