13 Things to Know About DNA Testing Kits

Thanks to companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA, personal DNA testing is hot. For a couple hundred dollars or less, you can find out where your ancestors came from, in case you need to swap out your lederhosen for a kilt, as in one memorable ad. Most of us recall when DNA sequencing was cutting edge technology, and took years and millions of dollars to accomplish. How do these companies do it for so many people? Well, for one thing, they don't map all your DNA.

2. THE KITS LOOK FOR GENETIC VARIATIONS CALLED SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISMS.

After extracting DNA from your cheek swab or saliva sample, DNA testing companies search your DNA for certain genetic variants. The building blocks of DNA are chemical bases called nucleotides, which come in four varieties—A, T, C, and G (adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine, respectively). We have 3 billion pairs of these bases, so 6 billion letters in all, strung together in a sequence. Altogether, this genetic information is called your genome.

DNA testing companies determine which of the four letters is present at many locations in your genome. Much of the sequence is shared among humans, so the companies focus on specific letters that vary from person to person, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Many SNPs have some biological relevance. For example, having one variant of a specific SNP near the gene OCA2, which codes for a protein believed to be involved in producing the dark pigment melanin, makes it much more likely you’ll have blue or green eyes. Other traits and even some diseases are also associated with certain SNPs, some more strongly than others.

That's one of the many ways that commercial DNA testing stands on the shoulders of earlier, more expensive research. Read more facts about personal DNA tests at Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Flickr user University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability)


Comments (0)

yeah right!!!

?o you actually own eyes?? or are you just thrashing blindly at the keyboard with your finger mouths and the sicked up that load of twaddle!!

evil knievel’s goggles!

Ridiculous.....
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It is a piece of barding (armor for horses); specifically called a Champron. (The strap that goes from corner to corner is the one that goes behind the horse's ears).

A head-butt from a horse wearing that is going to hurt something awful.

-adam
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phhuu... how do i describe it in english! this thing is binded on top of the nose of a calf! when the calf starts to drink milk from the mother cow it pikes her and the calf can't drink milk! this is exactely the target! the calf has to stop suckling the dug!
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I'm not a horse-geek directly. But I am married to one. That just makes me poor. :)

Oh, and 'calf weaners' are clipped onto a calf's nose so they droop over their mouth. When they go to nurse the spikes (which are *much* shorter) hit the utter causing mom to shoo them away. Having spikes around the eyes, especially of that magnitude, is not going to be that effective at anything other than bodily harm.

(and no, I didnt know that before. All hail the Great Goog!)

-adam
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Its a purkle, used for spagulation of fromus gallopers. Remember the line from your grade school poetry class:

'Vembly gaithers the corker's purkle,
Tween Gallopers fast alight
Bravely kiffles the grumish gurgle
Twixt afterthought's first light'
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I don't know the exact name of it, but its purpose is to keep a calf from getting milk from its mother. I believe this was to ween the calf, which was perhaps destined to become veal. My mom has a bunch of old farm equipment on her walls, and one of these is on there.
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This item is used for weaning an animal. Once strapped to the nose of a calf or foal it can no longer nurse, because the mother will be jabbed, and will kick the baby away.
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you put it on a young cow or foal. when it tries to get milk from it's mom, the mom gets poked and kicks the young one away. thereby weaning the young one. hence it's name, a metal weiner...(ok, i made that last part up)
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it is so obvious.

it is their first attempt to make a mask for hannibal lector. The only issue was he would still try to bite people and end up sending a spike right to their throaght. That is why they decided to change the design to something more suitable
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Rats! Keith beat me to it! It's a calf weaner. The calf wears it around its neck. It pokes the mother when it tries to nurse, and the cow then nudges the calf away.
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It is a device to help you quit smoking. You bind it around your neck with the spikes up.
Smaller versions exist for your wrists.
It can also be used to eat less, but people can throw food in their mouth, so it's less effective.
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It is a shoulderpiece for a warrior. With the spikes up. It protects the shoulder as well as the head from a swinging sword.
Every warrior should have at least one, even if it's not made for that purpose originally.
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addition to comment 75:
If you have a fourth one laying around, place it over the ashtray. You can't have too many spikes if you want to quit smoking.

Actually there are stories of catholic schools that used the wristmodels to keep young boys (and girls) from scratching themselves under the covers.
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