How Accurate Are The Results Of Deoxyribonucleic Acid Tests?

DNA tests must be done quite accurately and efficiently, because a lot of serious things might depend on the results of these tests. They might determine the true paternity of a child, or the ancestral lineage of a person, or even establish if the person is staying as an illegal alien in a particular country. All these things are highly important, and that's the reason why DNA tests must not be inaccurate in the least. But what is the actual accuracy ratio of the DNA tests?

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To understand that, we will first need to be acquainted with the structure of the DNA. The DNA molecule is a double helical structure (we are indebted to the Nobel Prize winning scientists, Watson and Crick, who discovered the structure of the DNA). It contains a recurring pattern of sugar molecules containing 5 carbon atoms (deoxyribose sugars) connected with phosphoric acid molecules. The sugars are also connected via nitrogen bases. Human beings have two types of nitrogen bases, the purines and the pyrimidines. There are two purines, adenine and guanine; and there are two pyrimidines, cytosine and thymine. This makes it a total of four nitrogen bases.

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Now the wonderful thing is that no two persons of the world will have the same combinations of these bases in their DNAs. Every person has a unique DNA, and that is the whole basis of all DNA testing. The unique DNA is an establishing factor for the identity of the person.

When a child is produced, the child will contain half the DNA from the father and half the DNA from the mother. Thus, by comparing the DNAs, paternity and other such things can be established.

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Since these tests are more about comparing two different patterns, their results can get a high degree of accuracy. If you want to disprove that a person is the father of the child, i.e. a negative test, then you can get cent percent accurate results. But if you want to prove that the person is the father of the child, i.e. a positive test, then the accuracy of the test might be a little low. That means, negative tests are much more accurate than positive tests.

It is very important that you select an ISO branded company for your DNA tests, because they follow standard procedures and have a better history of accuracy. Identigene is one of my recommendations for DNA testing.

About the author: The subject of DNA Tests fascinated Sean so much that he studied deeply into it, and now he wants people to know about it. He has written more such informative articles too. You can read them here: http://www.gene-tree.org