Asian girl, English boy: what we learned from DNA tests

Asian girl, English boy: what we learned from DNA tests

Before our trip to Asia this year we turned to 23Andme to learn some home truths about our roots

I never felt exotic when I grew up. I was one of eight Bangladeshic children in a street full of Bangladeshische inhabitants in an area full of Bangladeshische immigrants.

In my home district of Tower Hamlets, Bangladeschers make up almost a third of the population - significantly more than the share in all of London (3 %) or England (<1 %). In fact, Tower Hamlets has the largest Bangladeshic population throughout England.

As an adult, I worked in places like Accenture (where I met zero Bangladescher) and Penguin Random House (where I met zero Bangladescher) before I packed everything together to travel to the world (where I met zero Bangladescher). Suddenly I found that people were very interested in my roots. Being Bangladesh was suddenly a point of curiosity, a topic of conversation.

Peter jokes that when we travel as a mixed couple, he plays the second violin, because as soon as we re -introduce ourselves to someone, the attention is focused on me and my original origin.

To definitely answer this question-and to try to provide Peter an interesting history of origin-we tried the 23andme DNA test kit this year before our trip to Asia. I was curious to see if East Asians existed in my family because I am often asked whether I have Thai, Singapore or Malaysier in my "mix". I was always sure that the answer is no.

alt = “international woman of the mystery, you call me”> atlas & boots international woman of the mystery, you call me

The 23Ande DNA test kit showed that I come from 93 % from South Asian (yup), 5 % from East Asians (Wat?) And 2 % from inaccessible (HUH). As I understand it, this means that my family may have an East Asian ancestor four or five generations. I wondered how far the test could look without losing accuracy.

jhulianna Cintron, an ancestry expert from 23Andme, explains that “the Ancestry Composition Report 5-10 generations is back. Each of these generations is about 25 years so that the overall years in the report can be up to 250 years.”

A range of 250 years is clearly impressive, but what about the "not assigned" DNA? Why can't it be categorized?

jhulianna says: "There are certain DNA pieces that can be found everywhere in a certain region and not outside of this region. Everything that you see as largely European, largely Western Europe can only be found in these regions. All DNA pieces that can be found in several regions-that is, Europe, Asia, Asia, West Asia-are" not assigned ". We are simply unable to reliably assign them to a certain reference population. Instead of simply assigning them arbitrarily, they will be "not assigned" their label. "

My DNA test had brought some interesting information about my ancestors-but what about Peter? Did he get the story he longed for?

Unfortunately, Peter is 99.9 % European and only 0.1 % not assigned. I pointed out that his European share contains 6 % Scandinavians, whereupon he became aware of and started to call himself a Viking.

alt = “Travel as a mixed couple often raises questions about our roots”> Atlas & Boots Travel as a mixture of a mixture often raises questions about our roots

The 23Andme-DNA test also offered an insight into general properties. Apparently I have a probability of <1 %of having red hair and a probability of 10 %to be blonde. I am more dubious I am a "probable sprinter" and have a "reduced" sensitivity to pain. Anyone who ran with me knows that it is not true. Against this background, I wondered whether DNA tests and especially the tracking of ancestors are really only forms of genetic astrology, as some have claimed.

jhulianna says: "In terms of the Ancestry Composition report, we see a lot of data to [including] private data records and public data sets. We look at a genetically similar group, so it is not that we only assign them a parentage based on what we think that they could actually be that is what is in their DNA; Reference population genetically similar. ”

She adds: "We are happy to consider your DNA as small cars in one train. We consider certain windows in your DNA and then compare these windows with the windows of known data records and so we assign you to a reference population. We are very convinced of these results."

alt = "Peter had hoped for more colorful ancestors"> Atlas & Boots Peter had hoped for more colorful ancestors

In terms of trust level, 23Andme offers three flavors. The most granular is speculative, but has a confidence level of 51 %, standard is bound to 75 %, while conservatively, a confidence level of 95 % offers.

jhulianna explains: "Every descent that 'disappears' when you switch to the standard or to conservative is moved to a more general category. It does not completely disappear from its results, it only goes into the wider category."

Trust is the key, especially in the sections genetic risk factors and inheritance diseases of the health and descent test. This explains why our results contain neither heart diseases and diabetes that exist in my family, nor cancer contain cancer that exists in Peters family.

Stacey Detweiler, employee of medical matters and genetic consultants at 23Andme, says to us: "We have no report on cancer, heart diseases and diabetes as a whole. There are so many different types of heart diseases and the same applies to cancer, so we do not believe that there are only one or two genes that affect this risk as a whole. Lifestyle decisions are made.

Some may say that DNA tests, especially in terms of health, are risky because they may come across something they don't want to know. Perhaps customers should be warned that they may not find anything special at all. Like Peter, her descent may be less exotic than you hoped.

Although, maybe that's unfair. Peters ’not assigned‘ descent contains the possibility that it is <0.1% jakut, so it sticks to it.

If you want to learn more, order a 23andme DNA test kit from Amazon or directly from 23Andme. We did the integrated Health & Ancestry test.

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