[Determination of biological paternity yesterday and today]

The paper deals with methodical development of expertise in cases of disputed paternity. Presently used approaches to paternity testing were introduced following deeper understanding of heredity of human features as well as development of new methods of their studying. While the genetic characterization of individuals tested was till recent time limited to the level of gene products, in the present also direct molecular genetic analysis of their genome is possible. The most frequently used molecular genetic technique is Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) which leads to multiplication of chosen hypervariable regions of DNA followed with direct with following direct detection of polymorphic alleles. Examination of several DNA polymorphisms provides an exclusion of all falsely accused men and in opposite cases a practical proof of parenthood. That is the reason why the world-wide trends of forensic medicine tend to consecutive replacement of all procedures use until now with methods of molecular genetics.