+353 (1) 685 6929 Here we have just a few pointers regarding DNA testing and some misconceptions which are really commonplace. “DNA” is very much a word that today falls in everyone’s vocabulary bank and who has not read or heard some article about DNA testing in the news; some celebrity who was caught in a paternity dispute and had to have a paternity DNA test to sort it out.
Is our DNA really unique?
Well this is quite a myth. Your DNA compared to the first random person of your same ethnic group is give or take exactly the same, save around 2% of the total DNA which is actually different. In terms of the functions all our DNA is responsible for well a lot of our DNA is associated with no known function and appears to do very little if even anything- this is referred to as junk DNA.
For DNA testing, we are only interested in that 2% of our DNA which differs from one individual to the next. It is much more complicated than that because the regions taken are much more specific. Only identical twins have the exact same DNA profile- if two identical twins are the alleged fathers of a child it would be impossible to know which of the two is the biological father of the child.
So a biological father and child will only share certain genes but the vast bulk of their DNA will not be different from other people. However, the genes, or rather loci, tested in a paternity (test de paternitate) test leave no doubts as to whether a man is the biological dad or a child or not.
In all other cases, DNA testing for paternity is conclusive and reliable.