If you ’ve ever taken an derivation deoxyribonucleic acid mental testing , you probably already know that the resultsaren’t exactly precise . Sometimes you curve up with all dissimilar results than you gestate . And different brands of DNA tryout can beget entirely different outcome .
On Wednesday , though,23andMe announced an updateto its religious service that should give customers more specific insight into where they are from . Rather than telling a customer that they are , say , “ Scandinavian , ” that customer might encounter that they are specifically part Norwegian . All told , the caller has added 120 new geographic regions to the results of its test . That ’s a self-aggrandizing upgrade from the31 universe labels23andMe employed before .
The update is thanks to a major expansion in the number of mass in 23andMe ’s reference population , the data band of deoxyribonucleic acid which 23andMe ’s algorithm measure your DNA against to set where in the world you match . The growing number of people that have have the company ’s test and divvy up information about their heritage help to ok - tune that algorithm , too .
When I lead 23andMe ’s test last class , as part of a storey I did on theaccuracy of stock test , the test was surprising because it tell me I was only 3 percentage Norse and 5.5 percent Middle Eastern , even though I require numbers much higher in those areas based on my family account . The majority of my DNA fell into wide categories like “ broadly speaking Northwestern European . ” And modest amount of Middle Eastern DNA was likely due to a pocket-size agency of people from that region in 23andMe ’s data .
With the update , the video 23andMe paint of my line was closer to the one painted by menage family tree . It was also more specific . It was able to tell me not just that I was Norse and mediate Eastern , but that I ’m Norse and Syrian .
“ We can do this by looking for exact desoxyribonucleic acid matches between a client and over 130,000 individuals of love filiation from 120 regions across the orb , ” the caller say ina blog post . “ If a somebody exactly fit with five or more soul from one of those specific part , that realm is assigned as a ‘ recent ancestor location . ’ We also report the ‘ enduringness ’ of the catch , which is determined by how much DNA a client shares with people from that region , adjust by how many people are in the extension universe . ”
The company note that it has also “ relabeled some of the population for accuracy and better understanding , ” such as the Yakut , which now come out as Siberian . The update will gradually roll out over to customers in the coming calendar month .
The update to 23andMe ’s test is a proficient example of how chop-chop genetical technology is improving , and how with technical advances and larger data point sets , consumer deoxyribonucleic acid testing stands to get a pile more precise . The results of my own exam were much more specific and seemed to be more accurate , based on my family ’s known history , than my results of just a few months ago .
But , in my case , the percentages of Middle Eastern and Scandinavian still were significantly humbled than I would expect , a reminder that line of descent DNA trial should still be taken with a reasonably large bucket of salt . Heritage DNA examination are still far more accurate for some group of mass than others . And even at their most accurate , they will still only be able to tell you how closely your DNA resembles other citizenry in the world today , not where your ancestors are from . If you go back far enough , we ’re all come to . The vast majority of our DNA is the same .
It bears repeating : Your DNA is part you , but it will never define you .
23andMeDNA TestingGeneticsScience
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