Home DNA testing kits

well I didn't do one on me, but on my dog. we found her as a stray when she was a puppy. someone docked her tail ( not a vet) and removed her dew claws(again, not done by a vet)

we always wondered what breed she was and decided to do a dna test on her- turns out she is what we thought all along- half boxer, half German shepherd.

the results gave very details explanations for three generations back- the shepherd part was def 50 percent- the boxer was mixed with hound and terrier from the third gen back- kind of cool.

Fruitbat said:

Anyone know about them or done them? If you feel like sharing, why and what were the results? Any surprises? If so, how did you feel about the surprises and did they have any further applications/ramifications?

I did one and it's being processed. There may be family sekrits.

I want do my husband's next as I suspect he has a very high Neanderthal percentage.

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A cousin did one, and it was not surprising at all. From what I can tell, if you don't have any significantly deleterious genes, then there is nothing else to do except have it around like a trophy from a long time ago.

I would like to do it sometime, because i want to see how high my Neanderthal fraction is. I think that I may be as much as twice average, because I have many of the Neanderthal characteristics: large brain, high intelligence, creativity, square shoulders, large muscle mass, etc. I hope that you are right about your husband.

I did genetics work for my M.S., and I ended up sending in a DNA sample to the National Genographic project.

Basically what the project looks at (and I'm assuming what you did is similar) are matrilines and patrilines, or DNA fragments that are transferred from your mother (mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA) or your father (Y-chromosomal DNA). These lines tend to mutate very slowly and do not recombine, or basically, they don't change much from generation to generation.

I did the mtDNA one, i.e. they tracked the matriline that has been passed on from my mother, her mother, her mother's mother, etc. If you did this, when you get your results back, you'll be classified into a "clade", for which anthropologists and geneticists have developed theories on where the clade first diverged and how long ago. If I remember right, I was part of the J clade, which first appeared in the Fertile Crescent a looooooong time ago. Your results should give you a history of your clade and possibly a map. If not, there are Wikipedia articles about most of the clades.

Pretty interesting stuff.

You might look at the website for one such outfit.

https://www.23andme.com/

Here's a sample Wiki article about the J clade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_J_(mtDNA)

sheadakota said:

well I didn't do one on me, but on my dog. we found her as a stray when she was a puppy. someone docked her tail ( not a vet) and removed her dew claws(again, not done by a vet)

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[hat type="canine professional"] Actually, a lot of the really bad tail docks and dewclaw removal are done by vets -- most especially those that use clamps, as most do (gar, what a mess -- you cannot do tidy dewclaws using a clamp, and it's likely to result in a naked stump on the tail). As a general rule, experienced breeders do a much better job with both. [/hat]

I don't know about the human DNA ancestry test, but the one for canine mutt ancestry is at best a wild-assed guess, and sometimes is entirely wrong. Ditto for the tests for canine genetic defects -- some are reliable, others are only reliable for a single breed, but totally off-base for other breeds (frex, the one for juvenile renal dysplasia -- accurate in standard Poodles, completely wrong in Australian Shepherds -- likely it flags a linked gene, rather than JRD itself), and some I really wonder if are ever accurate (the tests contradict what we see in Real Life).

And someone I know who has a MS-genetics and works in one of the DNA testing laboratories said the same thing -- the industry talks a good line, but it's largely snake oil.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

My husband and I both did the National Geo typing.

My husband: There's a family story that his Irish great-grandmother had a Russian father. Well, it turns out that's a possibility as he turned up 2% NE Asian (which is not uncommon with Russian ancestry).

Me: I have a high amount of Denisovan ancestry (which I didn't even know about before I thought this test. The real odd one was that my matrilineage haploid group (which is a rare one) is now most common in Syria, which would make sense...except that it's my father's side that comes from Lebanon and my mother's side that comes from the UK. [Scratches head.]

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Reziac said:

I don't know about the human DNA ancestry test, but the one for canine mutt ancestry is at best a wild-assed guess, and sometimes is entirely wrong. Ditto for the tests for canine genetic defects -- some are reliable, others are only reliable for a single breed, but totally off-base for other breeds (frex, the one for juvenile renal dysplasia -- accurate in standard Poodles, completely wrong in Australian Shepherds -- likely it flags a linked gene, rather than JRD itself), and some I really wonder if are ever accurate (the tests contradict what we see in Real Life).

And someone I know who has a MS-genetics and works in one of the DNA testing laboratories said the same thing -- the industry talks a good line, but it's largely snake oil.

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Definitely agree on the breed typing tests being inaccurate. There are many videos on youtube of people testing their purebred registered dogs' ancestry and the results coming back not just the wrong breed, but wildly wrong. Like staffordshire bull terrier coming back as part toy poodle wrong.

I have done some genetic health testing on my dogs. For the most part, those tests are accurate. The color typing tests are accurate too. I'm toying with having those done because I strongly suspect a lot of "sable" borzois are genetically grizzle, based on the results of my last litter and talking to other breeders.

The degenerative myelopathy test for borzois looks for a simple recessive. It's pretty darn accurate. My girl is not a carrier.

You can have paternity tests done on dogs and those are also accurate. We're planning a litter this spring. This will be the second and also last litter for this girl and I toyed with the possibility of a dual sired litter, but will probably just use the one stud. With dual sired litters you can still register the puppies, you just have to do paternity tests on everyone to make sure they're registered to the correct father.