Your DNA from spit (non-scientific)

Author: Eunice Lozada-Delgado 

It is known that to get your DNA (what gives you your identity in your cells) one only needs your spit. In fact, many companies have opted for this technique to provide services of ancestry and even to determine your susceptibility to getting a disease. This emerges from the idea that people nowadays are interested in their past ancestors as well as knowing beforehand the possibilities they have to acquiring a disease to maybe prevent it as much as possible. All this is possible thanks to the advances in genome technology where we can now even determine or “sequence” the whole genetic information or genome of one person. This we call genome is made up of your DNA which is made on four letters that repeated many times in mixed and different orders determine how you look like and your identity itself since no one else has the same order of the letters that you do in the whole world! Unless you have an identical twin duh. 

23 & me is a great example of a company that has provided this type of services of ancestry and determining susceptibility to obtain a disease to the general public. The way they develop the results is by asking the client to give a sample of spit through a kit they send them. With this spit sample they are able to sequence the genome (determine DNA sequence) but not completely, only by small strategic pieces called SNPs or single nucleotide polymorphisms. These are places in your DNA sequence where a single base pair (letter) is changed. So this is how obtaining a spit sample these people can actually identify you like CSI! To better understand this process view the video below:

By determining the identity of those specific SNPs in your spit sample they are able to compare it to their database and determine your ancestry as well as your probability of acquiring a disease related to those SNPs. This approach also has some ethical issues involved since not only will you receive these results but they will also keep them in their database. So even though they say that this is your private information, if somehow health insurance companies get their hands on those results (hackers exist) they can actually see your probability of acquiring expensive to treat diseases and can either increase the payment of your policy or not want to give you a policy at all. Also, they have had problems with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) because they are giving information that can be misinterpreted as diagnostics of a disease and they are not approved by the FDA to do this. This is why they say: “We no longer offer our health-related genetic reports to new customers to comply with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s directive to discontinue new consumer access during our regulatory review process”. So, for now they are only offering the ancestry as well as other tools like how much of your DNA is from Neanderthals and finding relatives that have also used 23 & me to new clients.  

Moreover, it might not come as a shock but these people have competitors! There are other companies that provide similar services. One of these is the National Geographic, yes you read correctly, the National Geographic has what they call “The Genographic project” where they use the data acquired to map the evolution of mankind including the migration routes of ancestors. So not only do you obtain your ancestry information but also help in the research of the history of humans, which is pretty neat.

Another cool example, which I personally like, is the Wisdom panel company. They use this technology on pet dogs to determine their breed/s as well as the history behind that breed. This gives an opportunity to pet owners to know the history behind the breed of their specific dog.   

 As you can see a lot can come out of a few drops of spit. From genetic information that can open a world of antecedent knowledge of your family or even human race, to information that can determine your probability to obtain a disease, or even determine the race and history of your pet dog. It all comes from a single spit sample and single DNA sequence with its SNP variants. So from now on don’t underestimate the power of your spit, because with the appropriate technology and that spit, one can obtain a lot of valuable information.

Here is and extra video that shows how 23 & me processes the spit sample in the lab to obtain the results, FYI:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gC8RQ7PemM 

References:

Wisdom panel, recovered 3/4/15 <http://www.wisdompanel.com/>
The Genographic project, recovered 3/4/15 <https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/>
23 & me, recovered 3/4/15 <https://www.23andme.com/>