DNA tests. Recommendations, thoughts, experiences

Forums › Health and fitness › DNA tests. Recommendations, thoughts, experiences

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#2707237 13-May-2021 23:11

Also, from what I can gather, Ancestry.com and com.au make a decent chunk of their income trying to on-sell family tree genealogy services.

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#2707240 13-May-2021 23:32

Something I'm curious about. There's at least one service now offering 100% genome sequencing. One I'm aware of is Nebula. The website is genuinely interesting and kind of spammy design as well. Makes me wonder if 100% services are legit? or just struggling with marketing.

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#2707243 13-May-2021 23:52

Just dont do it if you have done a major unsolved crime or series of crimes.

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#2707332 14-May-2021 07:40

gzt: Something I'm curious about. There's at least one service now offering 100% genome sequencing. One I'm aware of is Nebula. The website is genuinely interesting and kind of spammy design as well. Makes me wonder if 100% services are legit? or just struggling with marketing.

I think the Nebula website is full of information - not spammy. But they have to provide all that to justify a $ 999 test.

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#2707336 14-May-2021 08:19

There are 3 types of consumer DNA test available.

The common one that all testing companies offer is autosomal (atDNA).

It works equally for everyone and is the go to test for anyone seeking family up to about 8 generations ago.

Get the Ancestry kit. It has the biggest database, and if you need more info, download your DNA RAW data and upload it to other companies.

You cannot upload into Ancestry or 23andMe.

23andMe will do a basic haplogroup analysis as part of their results.

The other 2 tests are Y-DNA and mtDNA, both available from FamilyTreeDNA.

These tests are more expensive.

Only men can take the Y-DNA test (females have no Y chromosome) and anyone can take an mtDNA test (everyone inherits mitochondrial DNA from their mother).

Y-DNA tracks back along the paternal line only and mtDNA the maternal line.

These tests are good for DNA connections that go back hundreds of years, and not generally recommended for determining close biological relationships.

X-DNA analysis is different again. There is no specific test for it, but some companies will include it in their atDNA results, I forget which ones at present.

EDIT : The NZ Police do not use consumer DNA company databases for crime solving.

EDIT : There is no central global database. The various companies do not share info with each other.

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#2707339 14-May-2021 08:23

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#2707354 14-May-2021 08:59

My experience...

I have tested with Ancestry, 23andMe, and FamilyTreeDNA (mtDNA).

I uploaded my Ancestry DNA RAW data to MyHeritage, LivingDNA, FamilyTreeDNA (atDNA) and GEDmatch.

I got my dad to do the FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA test.

EDIT- add: I got into DNA testing for 2 reasons. One to work out who my mum's grandfather was, and that is now solved. Two, to work out who my dad's gt-gt-grandparents in Ireland were, this is still unresolved.

Each company has a different way of testing and/or processing your DNA.

Results do vary between companies, but not wildly.

What one company misses, another may pick up. Variety is good.

It's important to understand the processes of each company to interpret your results appropriately.

GEDmatch was initially setup before the free uploading so for a while it was the only way to compare your DNA with people who had tested at a different company, provided they had also uploaded to GEDmatch.

Now that you can download from Ancestry, and upload to everywhere except 23andMe the use of GEDMatch is decreasing in relevance unless you need to use any of their special tools.

They have also had several security breaches which is not a good look.

For me, Ancestry was most useful and certainly I have the most DNA matches there.

Then MyHeritage, then FamilyTreeDNA, then 23andMe, then LivingDNA.

YMMV.

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#2707357 14-May-2021 09:04

Gurezaemon:

Also, from what I can gather, Ancestry.com and com.au make a decent chunk of their income trying to on-sell family tree genealogy services.

There is a lot you can do at Ancestry without having to pay anything other than the DNA kit.

God forbid a company should try and make money. 😉

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#2707367 14-May-2021 09:28

Example ethnicity ESTIMATES - all me.

I uploaded to LivingDNA for free, but will have to pay extra money to get a more detailed ethnicity ESTIMATE.

Also, these ESTIMATES do change over time as the companies refine their reference DNA panels.

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#2707440 14-May-2021 11:22

Eva888: This is quite an interesting comparison. https://www.cnet.com/health/best-dna-test/

but still procrastinating and a tad cynical after reading about people getting totally different results after testing with two different companies.

From here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-online-dna-tests/

When I was tested by 23andMe, they proclaimed I do not carry a version of a gene that is associated strongly with red hair. Another ancestry company said I did. This merely reflects the fact one company was looking at different variants of the gene that code for ginger hair.

....

For redheads, you’d see 16 or 17 spikes very close to one another, because there are multiple variants in the same gene that all bestow ginger locks.

So I guess traits that are VERY single gene specific (like certain diseases) they will likely be similar, but it might be hit an miss where multiple gene variants can do the same thing.

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#2707442 14-May-2021 11:25

This guy seems to think the ethnicity stuff is a bit meh

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-online-dna-tests/

"When it comes to ancestry, DNA is very good at determining close family relations such as siblings or parents, and dozens of stories are emerging that reunite or identify lost close family members (or indeed criminals). For deeper family roots, these tests do not really tell you where your ancestors came from. They say where DNA like yours can be found on Earth today. By inference, we are to assume that significant proportions of our deep family came from those places. But to say that you are 20 percent Irish, 4 percent Native American or 12 percent Scandinavian is fun, trivial and has very little scientific meaning. We all have thousands of ancestors, and our family trees become matted webs as we go back in time, which means that before long, our ancestors become everyone’s ancestors. Humankind is fascinatingly closely related, and DNA will tell you little about your culture, history and identity."

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#2707467 14-May-2021 12:34

duckDecoy:

Humankind is fascinatingly closely related, and DNA will tell you little about your culture, history and identity."

Agree for all those genealogy sites, but OTOH mDNA is incredibly interesting for tracing prehistoric human migration patterns (and other things, evolutionary biology etc).

gzt

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#2707698 14-May-2021 19:45

freitasm:
gzt: Something I'm curious about. There's at least one service now offering 100% genome sequencing. One I'm aware of is Nebula. The website is genuinely interesting and kind of spammy design as well. Makes me wonder if 100% services are legit? or just struggling with marketing.
I think the Nebula website is full of information - not spammy. But they have to provide all that to justify a $ 999 test.

Fair enough. Spammy was a bad word choice. To clarify - frequent popups and an occasional long one pager like single product marketing sites use. The company itself does look legit. Pretty cool to get a whole genome.