Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with DNA

Help me, in the naaaaame of love!

GrooveStix — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:40:19 -0800

Help me find a video/article about a race experiment. I swear I watched this video on Youtube, but for the life of me I can't find it. It was about students in a racially diverse classroom that were encouraged to pick classmates that were presumably their most similar match - genetically. Then they (possibly) did a DNA analysis and it turned out that they were all wrong, because all kids chose their similar classmate on a basis on their skin color.

Does anyone know about this, or am I hallucinating about me watching it?

Who the heck's my pop?

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:09:18 -0800

How can I determine, with access to limited biological data, if my father is not who I thought he was? I was recently shown a photograph of my mother's college boyfriend that gave me a shock: he looks uncannily like me, to the point that people shown the photo assume it is of me. My divorced mother is being cagey about the possibility that this man could be my biological father, and while approaching my potential biological father is something I'd be willing to do, I hesitate to contact him and stir up a beehive in his life if this is just a coincidence. And of course bringing this up with the man who raised me is out of the question.

So my query, to all you genetic scientists and hobbyists out there: with access to my own male DNA and that of my sister (who is almost certainly the child of my mother and the man who raised us), is it possible to determine if we have the same father? If the results of such a test existed to show that my sister and I do not share a father, I'd feel better about approaching my mom's ex-boyfriend.

If so, how would we go about testing for this without spending a fortune? Follow up questions can be sent to the anonymous address humangenome.i85@gmail.com and I will respect your anonymity, too.

Thanks for helping me sort this wackiness out!

Matthew Barney's sculpture and molecular biology

mr_roboto — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:50:39 -0800

Has there been any critical recognition of the similarity of the sculptures of Jachin and Boaz from Matthew Barney's Cremaster 3 to important helical structures (the DNA helix and the alpha helix) from molecular biology? I've been thinking about this for awhile, and I cannot find any commentary about it on Google, which is driving me crazy, because I cannot be the only person who has noticed it. Unfortunately, seeing this image is going to be tricky, because fucking artists just love fucking stupid flash. Here's a link to the site for Cremaster 3. Click on 'Characters' on the right. Now click on 'Hiram Abiff' towards the bottom on the left. That's the picture I'm interested in. Those two sculptures represent the pillars--Jachin and Boaz--that supported Solomon's temple, as crafted by Hiram Abiff. In Barney's representation each pillar is a helix. One has two distinct pitches, a minor grove and a major grove, the major grove about twice the width of the minor grove. The second has a single pitch, about half the width of the minor grove of the first. B-DNA (our canonical double helix) has two groves, the minor grove with a width of 12 Å and the major grove with a width of 22 Å. The alpha helix has a helical spacing of 5.4 Å.

I look at that image and I see the central dogma staring right back at me. Has anyone else noticed this? I can't find any relevant commentary.

As of 2008, what can science tell me about my genetics thru DNA testing.

cadastral — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:20:55 -0800

Wondering if anyone here has had a Genealogical DNA test for purposes of learning more about your distant (ie. not recent/paternity) ancestors. I have questions about the differences (price, service, thoroughness) of the various companies offering this service, the type of data that different tests can produce, and ways this data can be (constructively) interpreted. I had heard of various folks having these tests done (one example of many) for all kinds of reasons. I was/am interested, and I researched it a bit. But I got overwhelmed somewhere between Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups and Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, and started wondering just what, exactly, these tests could actually deliver.

Then, to confuse me even further, at minute 1:10 of this YouTube video, Christopher Hitchens says the following, which, if true, raises my estimation (and expectations) for these tests a hundred-fold:

"...and I, by the way, have been to the National Geographic... and had--as you can have, for a hundred bucks--my DNA analyzed. And I can show you on a map which part of Africa my ancestors come from. Looks like Angola, In my case."

So, MetaFilter... please clear my head. My questions (to start) are these:
• How much (and how specifically) can these tests tell me about my ancestry (best case/worst case)?
• What types of tests exist, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of each type?
• Which suppliers/labs dealing in these tests do you have a personal (even anecdotal) experience with that has led you to have either a high, or a low opinion of them?
• What price range are these tests?
• What combination of test_type/lab/other_variables will most likely produce the largest, most enormous and rich mountain of (worthwhile) interpretable data?
• What are the things that I am certainly overlooking that I should not be?

If this helps at all: I'm a white guy, mostly Northern European ancestry. I'm totally ignorant about, and incredibly stoked by the "non-mostly" part of that equation, and I'm chomping at the bit to get this done. Yes, it's vanity, but please indulge me this one thing. I'll wear the same shirt all next week in penance.

While I'm not very well-versed in the biological sciences, I'm not afraid of reading links you send or learning about it. In other words... not a "tell me like I'm 6-years-old" type of deal--more like a "tell me like I am an conscientious, interested, incoming freshman to your "intro to bio" class"... (or somewhere in-between). Many thanks.

How can I get a digital copy of my own DNA?

hoverboards don't work on water — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:49:51 -0800

How can I get a digital copy of my own DNA? How much will it cost? Is the cost likely to become reasonable any time soon? This is allegedly a copy of the human genome, but not of any specific individual as far as I can tell. However, Craig Venter has had his complete DNA sequenced, so I'm wondering how feasible it is to get this done for myself.

I am anticipating that it would currently cost millions of dollars. But is there any kind of biosciencey Moore's law in operation that might eventually bring this cost down to, say, under $1000?

BiologyFilter: Can I pack chromatin in a test tube?

hammurderer — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:02:28 -0800

I've finally decided to learn about how DNA (by reading Molecular Biology Made Fun And Simple), and I have a question about chromatin. The pictures you see of chromosomes are all taken when chromosomes have packed themselves into a visible structure to allow them to move around during Metaphase. If I have stranded, intact chromosomes in a test tube, can I force them to pack themselves into the Metaphase configuration? If so, how?

Is commercial DNA testing worth the price?

Schuby — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:52:05 -0800

Are commercial genetic DNA testing companies worth the price tag? My family has a horrible history when it comes to a multitude of diseases. Cancer, Diabetes, Pre-Lukemia, Schizophrenia, and the list goes on...

23AndMe offers a $1000 dollar kit where you spit in a tube and send it to them and they can find what potential risks you have to look forward to in life.

Now me, being 21, I am doing my best to prevent any of the problems my family has been known of having. But I really wanted to take it a step further and find out what I'm specifically at risk for.

Is it worth it?

Dad, may I have your DNA?

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:45:04 -0800

Would it be worthwhile to preserve a sample of my parents' DNA, with their permission, in case I ever need it for genetic testing of myself or my family? My father may pass soon due to lung cancer. He smoked for many years before quitting 10 years ago. In anticipation of his passing, I'm thinking about all that stuff you would want to do with someone before they go.

I know that for certain kinds of genetic tests, it can be useful to compare someone's DNA against one or both of their parents to determine the heritance of some trait. As I understand it, this can be good to know both for my own health, and for that of any children I may have. I don't know much about exactly when this would be useful, and how often those situations would arise; that's part if what I'm out to find out here, from people who know more about genetic testing than I do.

Is this something that could be useful enough to justify the awkward conversation and the hassle involved? Do these situations arise often? Am I a monster for even thinking about this? Are there places that provide this service?

Is there such a thing as an 'invisible' virus?

unmake — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:58:13 -0800

Is there such a thing as an 'invisible' virus - have biologists stumbled across any 'diseases' that have no noticeable symptoms?

Derive time of conception or birth from DNA analysis?

christopherious — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:15:05 -0800

Are there any studies, past or present, devoted to the idea of deriving precise time of either conception or birth from DNA analysis? For conception, I can imagine a science fiction author describing a rhythmic pattern or pulse emitted by something in the DNA whose beats are somehow recorded somewhere, like the veritable second hand of a clock. For birth time I'm a little fuzzier on the possibilities, but one idea that occurred to me was the studying the effects of direct light (sun or artificial) on a baby's chromosomes when exposed for the first time (not counting any rays that might penetrate the womb through the mother). There is also the telomere clock to consider, about which I know very little.

Ideas for a gag gift for important genetics fellow?

greatgefilte — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:18:12 -0800

Gag gift for the head of a major genetics department, any ideas? Traditionally, our lab creates some sort of gag present for our dear leader -- in past years it was a 'Monoploidy' board game, a 'Flat Stanley' parody, a football jacket with a chromosome on the back, etc. -- with which to present him at the annual Christmas party. We need some new ideas!

Need Resources on Mind Energy Changing DNA

watercarrier — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:16:07 -0800

I need solid scientific evidence that thought can change matter - how consciousness effects DNA structure, patterns and ultimately reality. Charts, studies, videos, all is welcome as a way of viewing and understanding how the mind's energy works in relation to physical matter. Thank you so much.

Who's your daddy?

konolia — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:40:40 -0800

After 68 years, my mom still doesn't know who her real dad was. Is it possible to find out? Leaving out the long story, (and yes, there is a loooong story) my mom is either the daughter of the older Greek man who married my grandmother OR my grandmother's brother in law (who along with his wife-mom's aunt who couldn't have any kids-actually raised my mom after the Greek man died.)

We do know where both men are buried (in both cases, locally) but I was wondering if there was a way my mom could have some sort of DNA test that could tell whether or not she was part Greek.

I think we are part Greek as we both look it-besides, we are both short while her adoptive father was tall-but family gossip is insistent otherwise.

Anyway, Mom really wants to know the truth. How easy would it be for her to have that?

What is the mass of my DNA?

aliasless — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:52:39 -0800

What is the total mass of the DNA in my body? So, apparently, 97% of our DNA is noncoding or "junk". Assuming that noncoding=nonessential (a big assumption, I know, but bear with me), how much weight could an average person lose by undergoing a DNÆctomy™? Can I make a brazillion dollars from this idea?

Can I find out my dog's breed(s)?

archimago — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:08:59 -0800

I heard that you can send a sample of your dog's DNA out to be tested to determine breed. I have a pound mutt who I would love to know the mix before she passes. Anyone know if such a service exists?

How do you analyze old DNA?

footnote — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 15:40:13 -0800

How does DNA testing on old samples work? I've been reading about Larry Youngblood's exoneration from rape charges in 2000 -- apparently new testing of old degraded samples proved it wasn't him. Can anyone explain in simple terms what new technology allowed his exoneration?

Twin daughters of a sperm donor have SO MANY QUESTIONS

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 06:57:14 -0800

I'm a twenty-six-year-old fraternal twin, writing on behalf of both of us. Our mother has just revealed to us that the man we know as Dad is not our biological father. And the only person who knew the identity of our biological father...is dead. I'd always had trouble thinking of myself as my father's daughter, and I've had several discussions about this with my mom, during which she'd circumlocute around even the most direct questions (e.g. "Is dad my biological father?"). I know many kids doubt that their parents are their real parents, and I never felt strongly enough about it to demand a paternity test or anything (I also never mentioned these doubts to my dad), but neither me nor my sister look like our dad, act like our dad, or appear to have inherited anything whatsoever from him. My mom would always seem cagey on this topic in thousands of small ways, and I picked up on this early on, as kids tend to do. On the other hand, my sister never doubted for a second that we were related to our dad.

Anyway, we've recently met a few of our dad's relatives, and this re-ignited what I'd always thought of as my baseless neuroses. Last week, when my sister and I were alone with my mom one evening, I started in again, frustrated to the point of tears that she wouldn't give me a straight answer to any of my questions. I told her all I wanted her to say was "[Dad's name] is your biological father," and I'd never bring it up again. She said she wouldn't do it. Finally, after half an hour of this, she turned to me and said, "[Dad's name] is...your father." "Is he my biological father?" I asked, and she said, "No," then paused and said, "See, now you have more problems than you started out with."

We were both stunned. She came out with the story reluctantly, after a few days of prodding - understandable, I think, as this was the first time she'd told anyone about this, ever. My parents were having trouble conceiving, and tests revealed that our dad was sterile. They decided to use donated sperm, which was provided by my mom's ob/gyn, a man who died a few years later from cancer. She and our dad agreed to keep all this secret, from anyone, including us, for a variety of reasons.

For the past few days, my sister and I have felt like we're in a waking dream. Our father doesn't know we know, and we've been forbidden to tell anyone for the time being, at least until our dad finds out we know (although my sister has told her fiance). I abhor all the secrecy, which makes me feel very sad and isolated, but I respect that there are people involved who for whatever reason don't want this spread around.

Now for the questions...we have so many, but here are the most important.

1. We're incredibly curious about our biological father's identity, but finding it seems impossible. As I said, my mom's doctor died of cancer nearly two decades ago, and he was the one who chose the donor. The only thing he said at the time was the cryptic, "They'll be tall" (which, incidentally, neither of us are). We know the name of the hospital, part of a medical school, which makes us think that it could have been a med student who was there at the time. Sleuthing could only go so far, though, especially since all this is done so secretively. There's not even a donor number since they didn't get the sperm from a bank - I've found the Donor Sibling Registry but it seems inapplicable to us for that reason. Given all this, is there any possibility, even the tiniest sliver, that we could figure out who our biological father is? (My mom has suggested he might be the doctor himself, which would make things a lot easier, but we don't feel quite comfortable tracking down his family and banging on their door...)

2. We want to know what ethnicity we are, or anything about our background that wouldn't require knowing our biological father's identity (health risks, for example). I've been asked my whole life what ethnicity I am, but I've always thought I was just an odd-looking Northwestern European. I've done some research into DNA tests but the two I've found are inapplicable - mtDNA tests your matrineal ancestry and Y-DNA is only found in males. Any other way we could find out?

3. My sister and I look (and act) very, very different. After we found out, we discussed this and realized that the only ways we look similar are in the ways we look similar to our mother. We know of the fluke story of a mother giving birth to a black twin and a white twin because of a poorly-cleaned test tube or something. What are the odds of this happening? Should we get a DNA test to find out?

4. Is anyone else here the child of a sperm donor? Any advice for coming to terms with this? We're very confused and emotional right now, and though our mother is slowly opening up, this is a very touchy subject for her and she doesn't like talking about it much for her own reasons (although I showed her this article and she said, "shit."). My sister and I feel very lucky that we have each other - I can't imagine how difficult this sort of thing would be for someone dealing with it alone.

5. Any general advice from the crowd for dealing with this stuff?

I know this is all kind of a shot in the dark (um, so to speak) but we don't really know where to go and what to do from here. Anyone who doesn't want to post here can e-mail us at whosourdaddy@gmail.com.

Can DNA effectively be extracted from sweat?

UbuRoivas — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 21:11:11 -0800

Can DNA effectively be extracted from sweat? So, I was mugged last night. "hey mate..." "yeh?" (ubu turns around) *king hit to side of head*; mugger one grabs me by the lapel with raised fist, mugger 2 goes through my pockets. mobile phone & inconsequential amt of cash taken. wallet returned, kindly. (saved some bureaucratic hassle, al-hamdu li'llah!)

anyway, the coppers took the wallet & coat off me when i reported this, to be sent for dna sampling. the only trace that could be on either would (presumably) be any sweat that they were excreting. i am assuming that this kinda thing would be as adrenalised for them as it was for me. so...what chances of dna'ing them?

Take a picture, if you can.

anonpeon — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:58:04 -0800

Does an actual photos of small things like atoms, molecules or DNA? Google didn't show anything for photo, just lots of models. I am looking for real bona fide made from reality image captures. Is it even possible to do photograph these things? If not, are we moving to a point where we weill be able to take such photos or even movies?

If they can find out my DNA line why couldnt OJ pay to find real killer?

beccaj — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 12:31:36 -0800

Has anyone ever done the National Geographic Genographic Project ?? It's the one where you swab cheek -they map your DNA (maternal or paternal).. A friend did this ($100) then had an option to do more testing (an undisclosed amount -think 200-300). He said according to info on paternal line he is 85% Irish ancestry (he an African American man).
Seems pretty interesting (accurate tho??). I just bought 2 kits as a gift for my dad (maternal and paternal lines) and would love to know if anyone's done or heard things about this.

I've lost my introns, can you help me find them?

a22lamia — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 12:51:03 -0800

Calling all biologists - I've amplified a 700 bp region of cDNA for the gene PGI and now am trying to amplify this region using genomic DNA. Way more detail inside... Relevant background: PGI in plants appears to have 21 introns found in conserved locations, throughout the plant kingdom. My goal is to design primers to amplify some of these introns.

So far I have amplified this 700bp region in cDNA using degenerate primers. With the sequence I got from the cDNA I designed species specific primers around the intron boundaries. Using these species specific primers I have tried amplifying this region using genomic DNA. The first month of amplifications each time I amplified the genomic DNA I would run the product out on a gel and every sucessful amplification would show a smeared band the same size as was found in the cDNA. I was also having a bit of an issue with negative controls during this time and both my advisor and I were convinced I had contaminated something with cDNA. I threw out all of my reagents and primers and started all over again designing new primers based on the cDNA sequence data. Using genomic DNA that had never been opened at the same time as cDNA was being using I ran a gradient pcr reaction with my new primers. Yet again I am getting bands the same size as my cDNA, but this time they are not smeary at all, and further, my negative controls are perfectly clear. I've picked the brains of all of my labmates and haven't come up with any reasonable solution and my advisor is out of town for another two weeks. Does anyone have an idea about what could be going on? Could I be amplifying mRNA (I can't imagine it wouldn't have degraded in the DNA isolation process)? Has anyone ever heard of a gene losing all of its introns (losing 21 seems virtually impossible)? Can anyone think of some experiments I could do to identify what I am amplifying?

dna art on the cheap

zeoslap — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 10:40:54 -0800

My GoogleFu has failed me. Does anyone know of a place I could send a swab of DNA from my cheek and get a photo of it back (after they do the Chomatography thing). Because I love these but I'm too cheap and figure given the source image I could do the rest myself.

Why is phosphorus so biologically important?

feathermeat — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 09:34:30 -0800

To the biochemists: what's so special about phosphorus? Is there a particular reason that phosphates are components of both nucleic acids and ATP (I know they occur all over the place, but I'm especially interested in those two)? Is there a connection between the phosphates in DNA and the phosphates in ATP? What is unique (chemically) about phosphorus that makes it so crucial?

name that wireframe evolution Amiga game from 1990ish!

cortex — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:02:46 -0800

Name that 3D wire-frame evolving-creature-in-a-hostile-environment Amiga game from 15ish years ago. It might have been called "Eco," but memory fades. It was old-school wireframe graphics, with (maybe) some filled polygon stuff for the terrain. I was running this on an Amiga 500, and it couldn't have come out much later than 1990 or so.

The basic gameplay was a third-person view of your creature as you scrabbled about on the landscape looking for food and trying not to get killed. You started as an ant-like creature (or occasionally as a small flying creature) and had to puzzle out what you could eat and what would eat you. There were much larger beasts about: bipeds, quadropeds, and flying things.

I recall a "DNA" interface that would come up between rounds, wherein one could twiddle a bit of information (shown as a string of strange alien glyphs) to alter the nature of their avatar-creature in the game. The idea (so far as I could tell at the time, with a pirated version and no instructions) was to learn to evolve your creature through manipulation of its code into whichever form (and whichever variation) you so chose.

I can not find this goddamned thing anywhere.

Explain my mitochondrial DNA

scazza — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 12:47:12 -0800

I just received my results from the Genographic Project and they are confusing. Can someone explain my mitochondrial DNA to me? 1. They said that I am part of group L1.
2. L1 is not found outside of Africa.
3. All existing groups descend from L1.

First off, I am not African at all. My first thought was that they came to that conclusion because of the Filippino and Cuban parts of my ethnicity which can have traces of L1, but that only goes back 3 generations before there's a roadblock. My great grandmother was French, so, L1 shouldn't be in my mtDNA since it came from the male members of my geneology, right?

Then I thought that I was determined to be L1 because maybe I have so many different branches, that the only thing that is certain is that they have a common ancestor in L1.

Looking at my mitochondrial diagram, it has a bunch of different letters that might correspond to the different threads (ND, CO, HVR?) that split off from L1 when it started migrating. But wouldn't that be recorded in my mtDNA's journey? Isn't that the point of this project?

Geneticists, help! I've found some blogs who have posted their results, which all seem markedly different than mine, at least travelling out of Africa.