COMPANIES OFFER GENETIC TESTING VIA INTERNET FOR DISEASE PATERNITY ANCESTRY HOW ONE GENETIC TESTING COMPANY SAYS MY COUSIN IS RELATED TO BRAD PITT

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My cousin is related to Brad Pitt but doesn't know it! Amazingly, I read it on the blog of a genetic testing company. What can a genetic test tell you? Genetic testing tests include tests like: genetic risk for some blood clots, genetic susceptibility to some kinds of cancer, blood problems, paternity testing and ancestry. Genetic testing allows the genetic diagnosis of vulnerabilities to inherited diseases, and can also be used to investigate a person's ancestry and for paternity testing.



So I was reading the blog of one genetic testing company which said that "the Danish geneticist, Hans Eiberg, who pioneered research into understanding the genetics of eye color, now traces all blue-eyed people back to a common ancestor who lived 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, perhaps around the Black Sea near the Ukraine or Turkey". (So that blue eyed people such as Brad Pitt and my cousin are traced back to a common ancestor).


















"About 10 years ago, Eiberg discovered the gene OC2, which helps determine your eye color. Now he’s discovered a mutation that “switches off” this gene, ultimately resulting in blue eyes. Because the mutation is extremely specific, all people with blue eyes have the exact same genetic variation, and anyone with brown or green eyes do not. As a result, says Eiberg said, the mutation must have come from a single ancestor. “It’s not a guess,” he says. “It has to be.”




"The mutation limits the OCA2 gene, restricting production of melanin in the eye. The result: The eye’s brown color is diluted, giving people with the mutation pure blue eyes. (Shutting melanin production down entirely would result in albinism, affecting hair and skin color as well.)People without the off-switch, on the other hand, have eye color ranging from deep brown to blue flecked with brown. (Green-eyed people can thank an entirely different part of the genome for their pretty peepers.")

Got Blue Eyes? Congratulations, You’re Related to Brad Pitt!