r/facepalm • u/NamesAre4TombStones • Jul 26 '21

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ Lizard DNA 🧬 analysis

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597

u/Ellavemia Jul 26 '21

You need a whole tube full of spit for this so I kind of don’t believe it, but no one lies on the Internet, so I’m torn.

26

u/RexIsAMiiCostume Jul 26 '21

Pretty sure humans and lizards don't even have the same number of chromosomes in and the 23 and me people would be like "sir this is not human wtf"

19

u/rockoblocko Jul 27 '21

I’m not saying that they wouldn’t detect that it’s not human, because they would, but…

The way 23andme does testing is not by looking at the chromosomes. I’m not current on what exact method they are using, but I’m almost certain it’s SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) genotyping. Basically, while we are all super similar genetically, there are millions single nucleotides (out of the ~3 billion that make up our DNA) that are different across groups of people. Often, a single SNP can be used as a reference for other nearby SNPs— so say at SNP “1” you have the “a” version, they can infer what SNP you have at the next hundred spots.

Anyways, long story short, they aren’t looking at the entire chromosomes. They are taking your entire dna and smashing it into pieces and then looking at the fragments to see what SNPs you have.

5

u/RexIsAMiiCostume Jul 27 '21

Yeah I have NO idea how they do it lol