Mike's Rule #5 - DNA inheritance is imperfect
You are genetically unique, even if you are a twin. At conception, you were dealt a random set of DNA. Sometimes that set of DNA matches other people, like your cousins. And sometimes your DNA doesn’t match, even though you expect it to. DNA inheritance is not perfect. That’s why you don’t look exactly like your siblings (unless, of course you are an identical twin). Your mom and dad will always give you 50% of their DNA, but there are some random events.
Let’s represent mom’s DNA with 100 cards, 50 red and 50 blue (her DNA inheritance from her parents). She’s going to shuffle them and randomly give you 50 of those cards. Dad is going to give you 50 of his cards. Together, that’s you. Now pick up all the cards and reshuffle. Pass out 50 cards from each parent to your sibling. It’s highly unlikely that they will get the same cards as you.
What if mom’s deal to you randomly stacks the deck in favor of her father. When it comes time for you to find DNA matches, you will get more matches from your mother’s father’s side than you’d get from mother’s mother’s side Short story long, it makes a lot of sense to also get your sibling’s DNA tested because they will have inherited different DNA chunks from mom and dad and will provide different DNA matches. More DNA matches translate to a more complete picture of your ancestry.
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