Which one: DNA analysis edition
August 28, 2017 12:35 PM Subscribe
So, I'm super curious about the recreational DNA testing as noted in this FPP. However, I'm not sure which one to try and what fun I can have with aftermarket apps. Any thoughts?
National Geographic has just come out with their second generation Genographic Project test kit along with Helix. 23andme is probably the most well known and used and I've decided I don't want to do Ancestry for a number of reasons. I'm curious to know what other MeFites experiences have been with the various companies.
Also, I'm curious about the aftermarket products to insert your codes into. What do they provide, if anything useful or interesting? And frankly, what search terms should I be using to find out what is available post-sequencing?
National Geographic has just come out with their second generation Genographic Project test kit along with Helix. 23andme is probably the most well known and used and I've decided I don't want to do Ancestry for a number of reasons. I'm curious to know what other MeFites experiences have been with the various companies.
Also, I'm curious about the aftermarket products to insert your codes into. What do they provide, if anything useful or interesting? And frankly, what search terms should I be using to find out what is available post-sequencing?
Here are two comparisons of price vs number of pairs sequenced.
posted by gregr at 12:48 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by gregr at 12:48 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
We did 23and Me three or four years ago.
Originally, I was pretty disappointed because the information they sent back was so spectacularly unuseful to me. Things like , "you have the gene that makes your pee smell funny when you eat asparagus," and, "56% of people with the simar genetic make up to you have brown hair." But several years later they continue to send email updates with new information as it becomes available, and I've wound up being pretty pleased with them. Im mostly interested in health related information, less interested in genealogy type info, though some of that has turned out to be sort of fun to know (if not particularly useful).
posted by WalkerWestridge at 1:30 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Originally, I was pretty disappointed because the information they sent back was so spectacularly unuseful to me. Things like , "you have the gene that makes your pee smell funny when you eat asparagus," and, "56% of people with the simar genetic make up to you have brown hair." But several years later they continue to send email updates with new information as it becomes available, and I've wound up being pretty pleased with them. Im mostly interested in health related information, less interested in genealogy type info, though some of that has turned out to be sort of fun to know (if not particularly useful).
posted by WalkerWestridge at 1:30 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
My best advice is to take everything with a grain of salt.
We did FamilyTreeDNA originally purely for DNA/regional origins and upgraded to several of the DNA-family history tests. We weren't interested in any of the health-predictive services which is one reason we picked FTDNA. I have a bunch of known relatives who also did FTDNA.
We later did 23andMe because Family Tree "tweaked" our data and my BS sensors went full-buzzer, because going from 40% to 6% in Scandinavian DNA, 26% to 0% in Central/Western European, and 28% to 70% in the British Isles region is not a tweak.
The tweak also didn't match our known and documented history, matched relatives, last names, physical characteristics traditionally associated with a group, etc. As a result, we don't know what to believe about any of their tests.
When we did 23and Me, the results were different from both of those results in percentages, and some origin regions (added and missing). Of course, they just shoved in 1/3 of my DNA into a category called "Broadly Northwestern Europe", so ...
posted by julen at 4:29 PM on August 28, 2017
We did FamilyTreeDNA originally purely for DNA/regional origins and upgraded to several of the DNA-family history tests. We weren't interested in any of the health-predictive services which is one reason we picked FTDNA. I have a bunch of known relatives who also did FTDNA.
We later did 23andMe because Family Tree "tweaked" our data and my BS sensors went full-buzzer, because going from 40% to 6% in Scandinavian DNA, 26% to 0% in Central/Western European, and 28% to 70% in the British Isles region is not a tweak.
The tweak also didn't match our known and documented history, matched relatives, last names, physical characteristics traditionally associated with a group, etc. As a result, we don't know what to believe about any of their tests.
When we did 23and Me, the results were different from both of those results in percentages, and some origin regions (added and missing). Of course, they just shoved in 1/3 of my DNA into a category called "Broadly Northwestern Europe", so ...
posted by julen at 4:29 PM on August 28, 2017
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I ran my data through Promethease and got some interesting results.
memail me and I can send you some screenshots if you're interested
posted by gregr at 12:43 PM on August 28, 2017 [7 favorites]