What I mean is what is it in DNA that a computer can compare and match with other samples of DNA?
In: 5
DNA is made up of 4 basic molecules. When you see those vertical block things on TV, that’s the lab extracting DNA from some cells, adding an agent, and then running it through a gel. That agent looks for a pattern, let’s say 43432214241 and then cuts the DNA. Now you’ll have a bunch of DNA pieces. Then you put those pieces into a fancy gel with a magnetic current that attracts the DNA. The small pieces go through the gel easily, so they show up near the top of the gel. The big pieces can’t move as easily so they clump together at the bottom. Then you just compare your sample to the database and see what matches.
For information on the gel process, the term you want is [Agarose gel electrophoresis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agarose_gel_electrophoresis).
Depends on the database and the sort of measurements it collects. If you have extensive sequencing data (the sequence of A/T/C/G nucleotides that make up DNA) of different people, you can compare that in terms of % overall similarity. If you have less detailed data on short tandem repeats (bits in the genome that are copied a bunch of times in some people) or single nucleotide polymorphisms (somewhat like sequencing but focused on known hotspots of variation), you can assemble profiles out of that and compare those between people.
Letters. DNA only has four letters (or molecules), arranged in different ways, in long strings. So you can compare a certain string of letters to another string of letters to see if they match.
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