Posts Tagged ‘Home DNA Test Kits’

Home DNA Test Kits: A Private Option

Friday, December 25th, 2009

With home DNA test kits now available, so many answers involving genetics can be determined in the privacy of your own home.

Take the issue of paternity for example.  Some men wish to test their paternity privately and discreetly before turning to legal channels.  They may also wish to avoid any drama associated with the results.  Sometimes clients want the information only for their own personal use.  And they want to do it with as few people as possible to get the information.  Easy Paternity Test at home.

If the test is required by the court, it is a legal paternity test and in that case, a lab technician collects more than just a cheek swab, she takes thumbprints, identification and photographs of the men who come to be tested.  A home kit avoids all that.

Home kits can also determine siblingship.  A full siblingship tests whether siblings are biologically related to both their mother and their father.   In a half siblingship test, the participants already know they do not share one parent.   The test tells them if they share the other.

Do you have a set of twins?  Sometimes it is difficult to determine if they are identical; formed from a single egg that split, or fraternal, born of two separate eggs.  You can use a home DNA test kit to learn if your twins are one or the other and there are reasons for this other than simple curiosity.  Identical twins make excellent candidates for medical histories, because they are genetically so close.  They are also good candidates for organ donation for the other, just in case.  Only the twins need to be tested in a twin zygosity test, the parents needn’t be tested too.

Determine the questions you have about genetics and let home DNA test kits provide the answers.

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History Unfolds with Home DNA Test Kits

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Today’s home dna test kits look so rudimentary it’s hard to fathom the sophisticated science that comes from their results.

DNA Kits Swab

DNA Kits Swab

Most home test kits arrive in a little envelope bearing two plastic devices that look like stunted toothbrushes.  It is not necessary to prick one’s skin to obtain a blood sample; a simple cheek swab is all it takes to give scientists enough of your DNA sample to explore genealogy.

DNA test kits run about $250.00 for a “Y” chromosome DNA 37 marker test.  Occasionally you can get a group discount for several members of the same family that are testing  to establish a genetic connection.

The test kit has detailed instructions on how to get a DNA sample.  You rub the sterile swabs along the inside of your cheeks for 30 seconds.  There is no pain or breaking of the skin involved.

Once you finish your cheek swab you’ll put the mini toothbrush into a sterile preservative contained in a vial.  You have the option of signing a release to other members of your family who have also agreed to participate in your genome project.

The common Y-DNA test compares your results to others in your family and beyond.  If your results have only a few mismatches but are otherwise identical to another person with the same last name as you in 37 different markers, chances are you are both closely related in an ancestry time frame of 500 years.  If all 37 markers match exactly and you share the same name, you most likely have the same ancestor within the last 125 years.

More mismatches mean a trip further back in time to find a common ancestor.  For best accuracy, you’ll want as many home dna test kits for testing the males in your family to see how recently your shared ancestor existed.

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