NaNo question

Nov 05, 2010 17:01

So. Question for anyone with knowledge.

Can DNA tell you what race/ethnicity someone is? More specifically, can DNA tell you if someone is half [race]/half [race] rather than purely one race?

Also. I had a pecan pie latte today. It was good, but the coffee aftertaste still gets me.

nanofreakingwrimo, writing, question

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mari4212 November 6 2010, 00:52:03 UTC
Short form from the biology geek:

Race is a social construct far more than it's a biological one, so for some things, no, we can't tell from a DNA strand if it's black or white. There's actually more genetic diversity among all blacks than there is between any one "race".

What they can do is look for common genetic markers. Blacks are more likely to have sickle-cell trait, there's a few genetic markers common among various Native American groups, et cetera. They're not 100%, but if there's enough common indicators, it might suggest one to another.

Mixed race would be even harder to determine, especially with the melting pot that is our current culture, and the increasing number of biracial people. You could always set it up so that the character had distinguishing markers from both ethnicities, but that would normally make a responsible geneticist say something along the lines of racially undetermined.

Also, that kind of testing often is more expensive and takes longer to get results.

Much easier to just do a DNA fingerprinting and have them come up as related to someone instead.

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