As DNA testing now become more important, many people may not even be aware that apart from doing a paternity test, there are still other things that DNA testing can reveal about a child.
According to what DNA experts revealed to BBC, the most common use of DNA in Africa is to determine the real father to a child but this is just one of the many things they can use DNA testing to do.
The CEO of Paternity Test in Nigeria, Dr Ayodele Adeniyi said: “most men cannot afford to spend big amount on DNA if not to determine whether they are the true father of a child”.
“But paternity test is not the only thing you can determine because there are many other things DNA testing is used for.”
DNA Testing and What it can reveal
1. DNA paternity test that is usually taken from the cheek swab can help determine if a man is another someone’s true father.
2. DNA Maternity test can also trace your ancestry back to your biological mother, her mother and going back for confirmation.
3. We also have what we call DNA Sibling test which is used to detect whether you and your sibling is from the same parent.
4. Another thing is Y-DNA test which is given to men only, this helps to trace DNA back via the patrilineal ancestry (that is from father to grandfather to great grandfather).
5. Autosomal test is a unique DNA test that has the tendency to give accurate genetic information going back about four or five generations.
With this test, you will get a clearer understanding of your family structure.
If you are not sure whether a child has any hereditary disease, DNA Testing can also help detect that because according to the National Cancer Institute, many genetic tests can give information about whether they have hereditary cancer.
This actually detects different types of breast cancer, colon cancer, melanoma and sarcoma.
What To Know About DNA
The full meaning of DNA is Deoxyribonucleic acid
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a complex molecule that has all the vital information to develop and maintain an organism.
As you now know that DNA is for the determination of the real parents or lineage of any person.
There is no living organism on earth that does not have DNA in the cell, this is because it serves as the basic unit of heredity in all living organisms.
Let me make it clearer for you to understand why DNA is so important in a living organism:
If Living Organisms give birth, they will pass one portion of their DNA to their child.
This transmission makes it viable to achieve a certain level of continuity from one generation to the next generation.
Why DNA Test is Important?
DNA Test can help you get the right legal rights to child support, child custody, social security benefits and inheritance.
It can also help you detect links to genetic conditions that can affect your long-term health.
How Much Does a DNA Test Cost?
Well According to what Dr Ayodele Adeniyi of Paternity test Nigeria said, there are different type of DNA test with different price.
For now, there are two major types of DNA testing namely;
– Peace of Mind DNA Test
– Legal Testing
Peace of Mind DNA Test: this is individual testing and the cost of it is about N100,000 ($289) with an additional fee of N50,000 for another person that wants to run it for a specific purpose.
What this means is that if we have two fathers claiming for a child, they will only pay about N150,000 to run the testing.
Legal Testing: This testing is basically for child support, social inheritance or any other serious legal issue.
Dr Ayodeji said the price of this type of DNA test is around N160,000 ($595) and it can even be more than that based on the circumstance that relates to the testing.