DNA and Ethnicity: How accurate are commercial DNA tests? | DNA Demystified | Alan McHughen

Alan McHughen discusses commercial DNA testing and the statistical analysis that goes into determining ethnicity.

Alan McHughen is a public sector educator, scientist and consumer advocate. After earning his doctorate at Oxford University, Dr. McHughen worked at Yale University and the University of Saskatchewan before joining the University of California, Riverside. A molecular geneticist with an interest in crop improvement and environmental sustainability, he helped develop US and Canadian regulations governing the safety of genetically engineered crops and foods. Dr. McHughen served as a Science Advisor to the Secretary of State (Jefferson Science Fellow) at US Department of State and was recruited to serve as a Senior Policy Analyst at the US Office of the President (Obama Administration). He is the author of six books, including Pandora's Picnic Basket (OUP 2000).

Additional videos on DNA Demystified with Alan McHughen:

Alan McHughen and Molecular Genetics

From OJ Simpson to the Golden State Killer: DNA and criminal cases

What are the ethics of DNA usage?

What are GMOs?

Golden rice and the campaign against GMOs

On Genome Editing

Writing DNA Demystified: Unraveling the Double Helix

Which DNA test is best for you?

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[sandia]

The Ancestry DNA results were very helpful to me as I was tracing and researching my family tree. As I found my Ancestors through the generations, I found that the DNA results matched up very well. Of course I am only using it as one of many tools I use to do my own personal research. There also has been the nice benefit of finding close DNA matches that were adoptees that were looking for their birth family, and they found my family!! We were able to welcome them with open arms and help them complete their own birth story. Just remember People Lie, but DNA doesn't lie.

[ly_s_carr]

Thanks for the explanation. I'm Brazilian and my family has had mixed ethnicities for generations so far. So I was thinking about taking one of these tests and while I was watching the videos of people getting their results I always wondered - what is the difference between, like, an english and an Irish person??? How can they ever tell the difference? Isn't it a geopolitical, cultural and historical border instead of a biological one? Haven't these two populations mixed over centuries of history? This is what makes me feel less confident about taking these tests. Doesn't the population genetic profile change over time? Isn't it becoming more and more frequent? I feel like I'm going to get a result that doesn't mean much at all. The video has adressed some of these questions but I'd like to have more info. Tks

[SK-ybbx]

To put the 99.999 etc percent into perspective, we share 40% of our DNA with a banana.

[injanhoi]

I'm just looking for an estimate. As I told my mother these tests are not perfect. Some people take it a bit seriously and get disappointed when they find they have a certain ethnicity in them and not much of the desired one. I think this is a bad attitude to have when seeing your results.. It's just an estimate and bit of fun to find out what your ancestral makeup is, albeit not perfect.