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kristen johnson 2.
On the results page one of the scales shows “how genetically different your dog’s parents were from each other or how related they were.” I don’t understand this. Does a higher number mean more closely related as in the same litter? Is a lower number better because you don’t want the parents too closely related? Or does the number refer to how close they are to a true purebred pug, for example? Mine shows 20% and I know they were both pugs so I’m confused.
Hi Becky,
The genetic diversity value we measure is what percentage of genetic markers do the maternal and paternal DNA differ. Most purebred dogs are genetically similar within a breed, and we can use this to draw a decent line for “likely purebred”.
This isn’t a very robust measurement of relatedness in their family tree, compared to COI described here. Some genetic markers rarely ever differ across dogs — related or not — and so a better measurement won’t treat all markers equally. We are currently working on achieving a better genetic diversity measurement, so you can expect this to improve with time.
What does the 20% mean? Sorry, I guess not very scientifically-minded!
Most purebred dogs fall between 10% and 25% (usually 20%) and most mixed breed dogs have between 25% and 30% (although I’ve seen a few with genetic diversity as high as 40%!)
For all of a dog’s DNA, there are two copies: one from mom, one from dad. Sometimes, these copies are different in code (A’s, T’s, C’s and G’s). So, this number is what percentage of the dog’s DNA code differs between copies. If the parents are very similar in their DNA, as with purebreds, then this percentage will be low.
Oh I’m gonna bet my dog will be in the 40%s! Lol.
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