The 2 Types of Parental DNA Testing Services Revealed?

Answer 1

Although DNA testing services can be used in fields as far apart as forensic pathology and genealogy, their most common application is in the field of parental testing.

There are two types of parental DNA testing services: paternal testing and maternal testing, and, of the two, paternal testing is used most often. The objective of paternal DNA testing is to determine whether or not a particular man is the father of a particular child, and one of the most important applications of this test is to confirm liability for child support. Maternal DNA testing, on the other hand, is used to determine whether a certain woman is the mother of a certain child and can, for instance, be of use in cases where adopted children wish to identify their biological mothers.

Parental DNA testing has advanced to such a degree that the results of such a test are an absolute and inarguable indication of paternity or maternity. Other methods of parental testing do exist - and were in use before DNA testing had been developed - but are not as accurate as DNA testing. Paternal DNA testing has, in fact, become so far advanced that home-testing kits are available where men take their own DNA samples at home and then send them off to laboratories for testing. A DNA sample can be obtained in one of several ways, including a swab from inside one’s cheek or a saliva sample.

Parental DNA testing works by taking advantage of the fact that a child’s DNA - genetic fingerprint - is made up of roughly equal amounts of DNA obtained from both his father and his mother. Everybody’s DNA sequence is unique, and if a child’s sequence is compared to that of either of his alleged parents, certain similarities would exist if the man or woman were indeed his father or mother. Genetic information can be obtained from both a cell’s nucleus (nuclear DNA) and its mitochondria (mitochondrial DNA), and, as mitochondrial DNA only contains genetic material inherited from the mother, it’s perfect for maternal DNA testing.

DNA testing is the most powerful tool that is presently available for resolving disputes about parentage.