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'It made me question my ancestry': does DNA home testing really understand race?
Ancestry testing
DNA-testing is done by millions of people all over the world to analyze their DNA and find out where they originate.
Targeted marketing for DNA home-testing kits shows models under the banner “find out your ethnicity” or urges people to book holidays based on their “DNA story”. It’s estimated the industry will be worth £7.7bn by 2022.
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Ancestry testing
DNA-testing is done by millions of people all over the world to analyze their DNA and find out where they originate.
Targeted marketing for DNA home-testing kits shows models under the banner “find out your ethnicity” or urges people to book holidays based on their “DNA story”. It’s estimated the industry will be worth £7.7bn by 2022.
DNA home tests
Some problems arise regarding DNA home tests about what happens after the results of land.
- Storage of sensitive genetic information. An open-source DNA testing site was recently used by the police to identify a killer.
- Emotional side effects after receiving confusing or life-changing results.
DNA home test variances
Many who have done a DNA home test begin to question their family heritage and wonder if they might have been misled. However, taking DNA tests from different companies reveal wildly varying results. There are a few reasons for this:
- The companies are only looking at very recent DNA samples, from a relatively small group, in one specific database.
- The databases are skewed towards different parts of the world. Some have more American customers and other more British or Australian customers.
- These companies don't ask about the genetics of the past, and which of those past inferred genetic clusters we get our ancestry from.
- We probably inherit very few genes from our ancestors. DNA is inherited in “chunks” that break up the further back in time you go.
- There are ancestors from whom you inherit no DNA.
Samples from Africa
DNA testing companies often have very few samples from Africa. Some companies are trying to rectify this and have launched a program to encourage researchers to study remote populations and submit their data.
However, questions have been raised about the ethics of European and American scientists collecting genetic information from Africans for economic gain.
Ethnicity and Ancestry
Genetics over the last 30 years has revealed that there are no clearcut biological racial categories. Everyone is racialized in some way.
Ancestry is a legacy, not a bloodline. Our genetic script is just one side of the story.
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A cry for identity
The term “race” is widely used but isn't scientifically valid. Race is a social construct. For many, it is a desire for identity and belonging.
Ancestry
- We are more closely related than we think. A family tree isn't the most scientifically accurate metaphor: Trees branch out while family trees contain loops, for example, as a result of first cousins having children.
- The commercial genetic tests remain scientifically unconvincing.
Racist beliefs
The core of many racist stereotypes is that race is a biological classification.
- We are told that race is a social construct, only to have scientists carelessly mention both race and ethnicity in their research papers.
- The majority of geneticists think genetic differences between ethnic groups are meaningless regarding behavior or innate abilities. But scientific papers still show genes for complex traits, like intelligence, are along racial lines.
- Race science is pseudoscience, but genetics and evolutionary research are tied up with race.
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Different Outcomes
We're all different. If we are all on the same weight-loss diet, there will be various outcomes. Some people will lose a lot, some will lose a little, and a few will even gain weight.
Science...
Genetics And Nutrition
Scientists are continually finding links between genetics and nutrition. Many of us have a gene called FTO that makes us more likely to be overweight. You can get a genetic test to tell which variant of the FTO gene you happen to have.
However, scientists who study the genetics of nutrition think it’s premature to base nutritional advice on your DNA. That FTO gene, for example, has only been shown to make a few pounds’ difference in body weight.
Nutritional Genetic Testing
The coded messages of your DNA are billions of letters (nucleotides) long. Personalized nutrition companies only care about a few of your DNA letters and can tell you which "variant" you have at each of those locations (known as SNPs) along your DNA strands.
Genetic testing companies can learn what SNP variants you have by supplying them with a vial of spit.
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Human DNA is a Puzzle
In genetic ancestry testing, even identical twins who have virtually the same DNA may or may not get the same results.
Different DNA companies can show different results, in the case of twins...
A Booming Business
Consumer genetic testing is expanding as more than 26 million people have taken this kind of test, according to the MIT Technology Review.
The First Step
DNA tests are still considered estimates, due to imperfect data.
When a person wanting to give the test provides the DNA sample through the saliva, the company checks for variance in the saliva, as 99.9 percent of the DNA is the same in humans.
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