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Talk:Restriction fragment length polymorphism

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nunh-huh (talk | contribs) at 02:10, 27 April 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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From:
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 15:53:37 -0400
To: jwales at bomis.com
Subject: wikipedia and RFLP

Just a quick note to tell you that you need to have the content of the page dealing with RFLP corrected. One of my students used it as a source and found that RFLP is referred to as a property of DNA (it is a technique) and that the DNA is first usually amplified by pcr - it is NOT usually done in this manner. PLEASE check content - the page is mis-informative.

name omitted PhD
Assistant Professor of Biology
university name omitted
  • The article has been changed to address what were primarily infelicities of expression rather than gross misinformation. [1] Certainly DNA displays restriction fragment length polymorphism. Is it therefore wrong to describe this polymorphism as a property? Apparently it was misleading to at least one person, probably because they are used to RFLP meaning the test rather than the property being tested for. [2] RFLP can be (and is) performed on PCR-amplified DNA but "usually" is indeed an overstatement.
    I hope that name omitted has been duly notified that we would welcome her participation in actually editing out and clarifying anything else she finds wrong or unclear! - Nunh-huh 21:57, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Oh well, I partially disagree with Dr. Omitted (though I lack a Ph.D.). It seems pretty clear from Griffiths et al An introduction to Genetic Analysis (7th edition; pp. 404-406) that RFLPs are indeed a property of DNA, or at least a property of the individual with that DNA. This textbook considers RFLPs as a kind of allele.
I just did a PubMed search for RFLP. Ignoring articles that are trying to do something better than RFLP, the first article my school has a subscription for says in Materials & Methods "Alleles were distinguished on the bases of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) using Hph1". This seems to establish RFLP as a property. However, the following sentence in an abstract of another article does make it sound more like a technique: "Between 1993 and 1998 DNA fingerprints of mycobacterial isolates from TB patients were determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)." I'm somewhat confused myself.
Zashaw 00:09, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I think that Dr. X is just "used to" using RFLP as shorthand for the test and has forgotten that the initials actually stand for something. I hope you don't think the changes I made sidestepping the issue hurt the article! -- Nunh-huh
I agree that Dr. X was thinking about RFLP only in one context (and presumably this confused the student, who misinterpreted Dr. X's question based on our innocent Wikipedia article). I wouldn't consider myself an expert on this, but with that caveat, I did think that the sense of RFLP as a property of DNA, or something like that is a real usage and worth mentioning. What do you think of my changes to the article? I hope this is a reasonable compromise that wouldn't overly annoy Dr. X or confuse any of his/her students.
Zashaw 02:00, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I think your emendation is very nice. It would be good if Dr. X provides feedback! :) - Nunh-huh 02:05, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
(Although - sudden thought -- perhaps if we used characteristic rather than property we wouldn't evoke images of chemical property in chemistry professors?) -- Nunh-huh 02:10, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
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