Since most clothing is made out of plant fibers like cotton or animal hair/fur/wool, if you look at like a cotton shirt or something through the right microscope can you see the DNA of the cotton plant?
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Natural fibers have DNA, yes. The technology to extract the DNA from fibers is still in its infancy, [but it is possible](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/529305v2).
I’m not sure if it’s feasible to extract DNA from finished clothing, though. Some of the common processes used in the textile industry, such as bleaching, can damage DNA pretty badly. The paper I linked seems to be more about extracting it from raw fiber before it is processed into cloth.
Yes. And it’s used to detect fabric fraud. Certain plants come from certain regions of the world, with (more or less) unique DNA to that region. Example: Egyptian cotton.
Also, Leather still contains mitochondrial DNA as well.
It’s like an episode of CSI, but for clothes.
If you’re buying clothes made from natural fibers then yes but since most clothes are made with synthetic fibers, which are used in 72 percent of clothing items, which are non-biodegradable and made of plastic, then no.
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