Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Someone sent me a link to this https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/origins/ -- looks interesting.

Map your global origins with the most complete coverage of your DNA. 23andMe Ancestry Edition ($399) also includes:

Your Relative Finder: Find people who share DNA with you.

Your Ancestral Lineages: Mitochondrial and Y-DNA.

Questions for those of you in the know.

1) Are these services legit?

1a) Any others out there like this?

2) What can it tell me that I don't already know?

3) If anything, is it worth it?

flag	asked Nov 10 2010 at 22:07 Patrik♦♦ 12.1k●4●29●81

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I wonder how far back they can go. We're all African I thought. – Carl_Stawicki Nov 10 2010 at 23:00

Something similar came up once before. I think all these outfits offer multiple levels of services, for additional fees, of course: paleohacks.com/questions/5520/… – Mark Nov 10 2010 at 23:04

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All mothers pass on their mitochondrial DNA to their kids. Therefore, whatever they say is your mitochondrial lineage really traces you back to your Maternal Ur-Mother (mother's mother's mother's mother's etc.). All fathers pass on their Y-DNA to their sons in the Y-chromosome, which is unchanged enough that it can be matched to your father's father's father's father's (etc.) if you are a man (and ergo have the Y-chromosome). So while you ARE learning something of your ancestral origins, you are learning about the teeniest tiniest percentage of the total contribution to your gene pool. – familygrokumentarian Nov 11 2010 at 0:04

That's only true for familytree, not for 23andme, which checks ancestry on autosomal. familytree also does this for an extra fee – zohar Nov 11 2010 at 8:48

42 · Answer 1 · 2010-11-10 23:59:23Z UTC

I have used Family Tree DNA services mostly for genealogical tracing and find them legit, reliable, etc.

http://www.familytreedna.com/

It is up to you to decide whether it's worth it. I did it because my sister is a genealogist and I am the only male sibling, and the Y chromosome carries paternal DNA. I discovered I'm a member of haplogroup Q1b which is very unusual for your average whitebread Jew; Q1b are typically North American natives or Siberians, not people from central Europe. So it can lead to interesting results. Apparently I'm more closely related to Genghis Khan than Moishe Cohen...

If you are considering testing for specific disease markers, I can't help you and neither can FTDNA.

Eva · Answer 2 · 2010-11-11 05:36:23Z UTC

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I don't know about the human ones, but the ones for dogs are notoriously unreliable. One lady had a champion purebred pitbull but its DNA test came back as being mostly border collie! LOL!

answered Nov 11 2010 at 5:36

Eva
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Michael · Answer 3 · 2010-11-11 03:32:34Z UTC

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The short answer is wait a few years. The price will fall and you can get a full genome sequencing.
If you want to do it now, 23andme is the best bang for the buck.

answered Nov 11 2010 at 3:32

Michael
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The all-knowing US government (FDA) is considering regulating these and other genetic tests. They are afraid people will use this knowledge in ways the medical establishment does not approve. – Domer88 Nov 12 2010 at 19:26

zohar · Answer 4 · 2010-11-11 08:51:28Z UTC

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If you've got the bucks, it's worth it. If you do 23andme get the health also. that is their forte

don't buy anything without consulting first with someone

your motivations in testing are unclear. what do you want to find out?

answered Nov 11 2010 at 8:51

zohar
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James · Answer 5 · 2010-11-26 01:17:33Z UTC

I wouldn't use the info for anything other than idle curiousity/play. I don't think it's quite there yet in terms of quality. That said, there's coupons for Black Friday that cut the price to $99 + $60 (for a year's subscription). Substantially cheaper if you get it in time. Check twitter for 23andme to see various coupons.

What do you think about DNA ancestry services?

5 Answers