Regardless of net worth, it is important for all individuals to have a basic estate plan in place.  This can be done with a family attorney or there are many online legal aid sites that can assist you in creating the proper document. Most often the biological children of deceased individuals have inheritance rights, DNA is being used more and more when estates are in question.

In some cases, previously unknown children can appear to claim part of the estate. Or, a greedy or unhappy family members may claim that a beneficiary is not a biological descendant of the deceased person. Depending on the timing of the claim, defending this claim could require exhumation or testing of autopsy specimens, neither of which is a pleasant process and which can be an expensive process.

DNA has emerged as a common tool in modern human identification and has magnificent and unparalleled applications in modern society. The best defense is a strong offense. In many cases proper legal registration of your DNA profile with your estate planner or attorney will help ensure legal and rightful administration of your estate, should the need arise.

The DNA relationship testing market has been growing steadily over the last twenty years.  Prices are decreasing and the easy of testing is increasing. Today, it is projected that the annual number of persons that will participate in some type of paternity or extended relationship test will exceed 1 million. In sharp contrast, it is estimated that less than 200,000 persons were tested in 1988. The increased demand for DNA testing has been fueled by greater public awareness of the power of DNA and the affordability and easy access to testing.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 2007 was a record year for births in the United States, there were 4,315,000 recorded births. Experts think that the increase has to do with a range of factors, including immigrants having more children, professional women delaying pregnancy until their 40s and a larger population of women in their 20s and 30s. These factors, coupled with the fact that 38.5% of all U.S. births in 2006 were from unwed mothers translates into an increasing need for education of families about the importance of knowing ones biological parents.

About DNA

DNA is the map of life and defines the essence of our individuality. Despite the size of the human genome, over 3.2 billion genetic markers, 99.9% of the DNA in all unrelated people in the world is identical. Thus, the vast differences observed in the human race are created from the minute differences in only 0.1% of DNA. An individual’s DNA can contain valuable information to help the lives of present and future generations. Locked in our DNA code are the secrets of our ancestry and medical conditions that scientists are only now beginning to understand.

PATERNITY

It is natural for families to want to know who the biological father of their baby is. Nationwide, approximately 30% of tested men are excluded as the biological father.  That means that 3 out of 10 test comes back as a negative result for paternity. A child has the right to the sense of identity that comes from knowing who both biological parents are. Knowledge of a child’s biological heritage is also very important in understanding future possible health risks. In addition, determining paternity gives a child legal right to receive financial support from the father and to inherit from the father.  This is the same if the mother is unknown.  In an era when adoption is a popular option it is important to remember that more and more people do not know either biological parent.

RELATIONSHIP TESTING

Relationship DNA testing can determine if a long lost brother or sister, grandparent, aunt or uncle is truly related to the family in question. DNA testing can also reveal if twins are identical or fraternal. Modern DNA testing can provide answers for a new world of relationships. Paternity testing can also be performed indirectly by testing relatives of an alleged father.

FORENSIC PATERNITY

If a person is deceased or unavailable for testing which is often the case in the question of estate settlement, forensic DNA testing can be an invaluable tool.  DNA can be found on evidence that is decades old. Common sources of forensic DNA evidence include: fingernail clippings, hair with roots or follicles, chewing gum, used beverage containers, eyeglasses, hats, lickable stamps or envelopes, teeth, post mortem tissue, a toothbrush, or cigarette butt.  The results that can be looked for from each item differs and it is best to contact your laboratory to see what items they recommend. For more infomation on DNA testing and how it can asssit you please contact DNA Identifiers.  Remeber regardless of you net worth it is important to have an estate plan in place and DNA can be an important part of your plan.

I just came accost this article on the DNA Read the World website.  It was really interesting.  DNA really is helping fill in missing pieces of information in our knowledge.

New Insight Into Horse Evolution Friday, December 11, 2009 18:35 IST

Scientists at the Australian Center for Ancient DNA (ACAD) based at the University of Adelaide are studying ancient DNA from extinct horse species have discovered new evidence on the evolution of Equidae over the past 55 million years.

Only the modern horse, zebras, wild asses and donkey survive today, but many other lineages have become extinct over the last 50,000 years.

“Our results change both the basic picture of recent equid evolution, and ideas about the number and nature of extinct species,” Cooper said.  The study used bones from caves to identify new horse species in Eurasia and South America, and reveal that the Cape zebra, an extinct giant species from South Africa, were simply large variants of the modern Plains zebra.

Study’s lead author, Dr Ludovic Orlando, from the University of Lyon, said that the research team discovered a new species of the distinct, small hippidion horse in South America.  “Previous fossil records suggested this group was part of an ancient lineage from North America but the DNA showed these unusual forms were part of the modern radiation of equid species,” Orlando said.

“This has serious implications for biodiversity and the future impacts of climate change,” Cooper added

This study does not appear to have immediate consequences it continues to add to our knowledge of the world on which we live.  The bones that were studied come from different time periods and many show that these animals became extinct more recently than previously though some as recently as 50,000 years ago.  This study also suggest that we have under-estimated how much a single species can vary over time and space, and mistakenly assumed more diversity among extinct species than were possible.  While most children study Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution it is sometimes easy to forget that each species changes in very ways over time.

This article provides food for though regarding the environment around us and how it has been changing over time.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
National Academy of Sciences

The controversy surrounding Adolf Hitler’s skeletal remains is embarrassing for the Russian secret services. In 2000 the Russian secret service presented a skull fragment and a piece of jawbone that they claimed were the remains of the Adolf Hitler the Nazi leader. It was an attempt to quash the rumors that he had escaped Germany alive at the end of World War II.

But this October US researchers presented the results of DNA tests on the skull fragments.  The results conclude that the skull fragments definitely did not belong to Hitler because the fragments were from a female.  Scientists had already harbored doubts about the authenticity of the piece of bone because it was thinner than a male’s usually is.  Nick Bellantoni of the University of Connecticut said, “The bone seemed very thin — male bone tends to be more robust. It corresponds to a woman between the ages of 20 and 40.”  In addition the position of the exit wound at the back of the skull also made scientists suspicious because eyewitnesses said Hitler had committed suicide by firing into his right temple.

Russia’s intelligence service, has rejected these doubts. Vasily Khristoforov, the director of the FSB archives (the FSB is the successor to the KGB), told the newspaper Izvestiya that the bones are definitely Hitler’s. “These researchers never got in contact with us,” Khristoforov said, adding, “with what could they have compared the DNA? Moscow is the only place with the remains of Hitler”

Bellantoni said he was allowed to work on the skull for an hour. When he flew home from Moscow he had two samples in his luggage: a sample from the skull fragment and one sample of blood from the sofa on which Hitler is said to have shot himself.

Bellantoni was able to compare the bloodstains on the blood-stained fabric with photos the Soviets took after they seized Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. The stains had matched those in the photos. The research showed that the sofa blood DNA did not match the skull DNA. The sofa blood was male and the skull belonged to a woman, claims Bellantoni.

Khristoforov insists that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had ordered an investigation of the bone pieces because he was not convinced Hitler was dead. The comparison of the jaw bones with X-ray photos of Hitler made in 1944 had satisfied Stalin that Hitler was dead.

Khristoforov said that the corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels and his wife and their six children had been destroyed on April 4, 1970. “The order came from KGB chief Yuri Andropov, the later state and party leader.”  The remains of Hitler and Eva Braun had been stored in the eastern German city of Magdeburg but on the orders of Andropov they were incinerated and the ash was scattered in the river. “That was probably the right solution. Otherwise the burial site would have become a pilgrimage site for fascists who exist everywhere.”

Even within Russian officials don’t all agree on whether the bones are really Hitler’s. After the US research was revealed in October, the vice president of the Russian state archive, Vladimir Kozlov, said: “No one claimed that was Hitler’s skull.

ABC News

In an article published May 19th, 2009 Scientists released data that shows that this fossil could be, “the first link to all humans … truly a fossil that links world heritage,” said Norwegian paleontologist Jørn Hurum of the University of Oslo Natural History Museum.

Meet “Ida,” the small “missing link” found in Germany.  The 47-million-year- old fossil suggests that Ida is a critical missing-link species in primate evolution.  This fossil is thought to bridge the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their most distant relatives such as lemurs.

Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae has lemur-like skeleton features and primate-like aspects such as grasping hands, opposable thumbs, nails instead of claws.

At least one aspect of Ida is unquestionably unique: her incredible preservation, unheard of in specimens from the Eocene era, when early primates underwent a period of rapid evolution.  “From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there,” said Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study with Jørn Hurum

For Jørn Hurum full publications see:

Jørn Hurum Full Publication

Just published in April in the Science Express is an amazing article on Ancestry testing. The international research team, led by Sarah Tishkoff, a geneticist at the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania, studied genetic variation among 121 African populations, four African American populations, and 60 non-African populations by collecting DNA from many volunteers and comparing the sequences at various genetic markers around the genome.  This research has lead to some fascinating conclusions.

Sarah Tishkoff and her team of international researchers collected DNA samples from all areas of Africa over the course of many years, creating a large data base of genetic markers.  Looking at this large and varied data base has lead to a new understanding of African Ancestry.  The result of this study shows shared ancestry among geographically diverse hunter-gatherer populations, including pygmies and click-speaking San as well ask click-speaking groups in East Africa.  This shows a wide ranging population migration accost the African Content.  This study shows that the African American population’s ancestry is predominantly from the Niger-Kordofanian population of West Africa (71%) as well as from European (13%) and other African (about 8%) populations.

While this research alone is completely fascinating, the possibilities for further research is wide open.  It has been suggested by scientists that people originated in the African region. Therefore, this study is a gateway to perform comparisons of other races genome to this data base to determine the validity of that suggestion.

For further information please see:

http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2009/0430sp_africa.shtml

56 Years ago, two Oregon women, Kay Rene (Reed) Qualls and DeeAnn (Angell) Shafer, were born at Heppner’s Pioneer Memorial Hospital. While both girls were being bathed they were accidentally switched and returned to the wrong mothers.  The mistake was not discovered until the summer of 2008, when a former neighbor of the Angell family, and a friend of the Reed family, contacted Kay’s older brother, Bobby.

The 86 year old woman told Bobby that she “needed to get something offer her chest”.  She claimed Marjorie Angell, DeeAnn’s mom, had insisted she’d come home with the wrong baby – nurses had taken her baby and the Reed baby, both bald and weighing about 6 pounds, and bathed them together, when they returned with the babies, they’d been switched.

Both families compared stories and learned that rumors of the switch had been talked about for years.  They decided to preform a sibling-ship test to determine the truth as both sets of parents were deceased.  DeeAnn and Kay tested with two of Kay’s purported siblings and discovered that they had, in fact, been switched at birth!

It should comfort some to know that, while mistakes can happen, it is highly unlikely that this type of oversight could be made at a hospital in this day and age, as there are many precautions taken. Furthermore, should a mother have concerns, she is now able to do purchase and perform a maternity DNA test.

For the Full story:

http://eastoregonian.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=92415

Julia Pastrana, the most famous “Bearded Lady”, was a Mexican-born woman who exhibited herself in 19th-century Europe as part of a traveling circus, dancing and singing in clothes that showed off her hairy visage and limbs. At the time, she was considered a freak and no one knew why she was cursed with this hairy condition. It all comes down to DNA. As it turns out, Julia had Hypertrichosis Terminalis, or CGHT.

CGHT is a condition where excessive hair grows over and above the normal amount for the age, sex and race of the individual. It can develop all over the body or can be isolated to small patches. CGHT is an extremely rare but highly inheritable disorder.

Geneticist, Xue Zhang, of the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, has set out to discover a cure, or at least a cause for this disease and has scoured China for cases he can research. His team found three affected families, including 16 afflicted members, who were willing to participate in a study.

Xue Zhang, and his research team, first conducted a genome-wide linkage scan in a large four-generation family which showed a genetic locus (location) for CGHT. Afterward, they conduced further studies on the genetic markers from the same chromosome region. (This confirmed genetic mapping previously performed.) They found that in every family a microdeletion (the loss of a tiny piece of a chromosome), within the critical region of the locus, was present in all affected individuals but was not present in unaffected family members. This research successfully and conclusively identifies CGHT as a genomic disorder. Now lets hope he can find a cure!

Click here to read the full article

The earth environment that surrounds us on a day to day basis has been proven to be quite polluted, especially in certain areas of the world or locations such as offices or workplaces. The heavy metals and toxins that we can be exposed to, such as mercury and asbestos, have been known to cause diseases in animals and humans. Research is ongoing regarding the genetic affects that this pollution can have on us.

A recent study focused on this issue and the rate at which pollution can damage or change DNA. It was performed by Dr. Andrea Baccarelli and a team of scientists from the Center of Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology ( Department of Environmental and Occupational Health University of Milan, Italy). This study used the DNA of 63 healthy foundry workers in Italy. Blood DNA samples were collected on the morning of the first day of the work week and again after three days of work. The study compared the samples taken on the different days and proved that the environmental pollution absorbed by the workers caused some genes to become reprogrammed, which in turn affects both the development and the outcome of cancers and other diseases, and that significant changes had occurred in four genes associated with tumor suppression in such a short period of time.

According to Dr. Baccarelli, “The changes were detectable after only three days of exposure to particulate matter, indicating that environmental factors need little time to cause gene reprogramming which is potentially associated with disease outcomes. As several of the effects of particulate matter in foundries are similar to those found after exposure to ambient air pollution, our results open new hypotheses about how air pollutants modify human health.”

For more information see:

http://www.thoracic.org/search.cfm?q=Andrea+Baccarelli&x=0&y=0

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090517-pollution-changes-dna.html

Science Daily’s article “Wolf in Dog’s Clothing?” opens the door for new studies in animal genetics and domestication. Scientists have been able to prove that domesticated dogs that bred with wolves thousands of years ago and that this gave wolves a genetic mutation encoding dark coat color.  As a result, the Gray Wolf is no longer just gray.  In addition scientists are reporting that the darker colored wolves have advantages over their lighter pack mates in forested areas. This is leading scientists to believe that these advantages are due to the addition of that domesticated dog DNA.

This study was conducted by Genetics professor Greg Barsh, MD, PhD, and one of his  graduate students, Tovi Anderson, as well as other scientist collaborators.  They compared DNA collected from 41 black, white and gray wolves in the Canadian Arctic and 224 black and gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park with that of domestic dogs and gray and black coyotes.  This study confirmed that the black-coat gene shows evidence of positive selection in forest wolves. It also showed that the gene is dominant, meaning that an animal with only one copy of the gene would still have a black coat. Ten out of fourteen pups conceived by the mating between a black wolf and a gray wolf carried the gene and were black.

Anderson and her collaborators used a variety of genetic tests to determine that the mutation was likely introduced into wolves by domesticated dogs sometime in the last 10,000 to 15,000 years. This was about the same time the first Native American humans were migrating across the Bering land bridge. These humans were probably accompanied by dogs, some of which carried the black-coat mutation estimated to have arisen about 50,000 years ago.

Barsh said, “We were really surprised to find that domestic animals can serve as a genetic reservoir that can benefit the natural populations from which they were derived. It’s also fascinating to think that a portion of the first Native American dogs, which are now extinct, may live on in wolves.”

For the full article see:

http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/02/090205142137.htm

(Stanford University Medical Center. “Wolf In Dog’s Clothing? Black Wolves May Be First ‘Genetically Modified’ Predators.” ScienceDaily 6 February 2009. 24 April 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/02/090205142137.htm>)

Written by Meagan Cantrell and based on an “Early Show Exclusive” interview video by Julie Chen dated 11/29/2007:

After 5 years of knowing each other, hometown best friends, Brandy Hersh and Heidi Wickware discovered they’re actually full sisters. Only two years apart in age, these two women, from Springfield, MO, attended the same elementary and middle schools, but became best friends when they stated dating two boys who introduced them to each other.

Although they have uncommon features, among them different eye and hair color, they were interested in, and liked to do, the same things and even finished each other’s sentences. The two became fast friends and were closer than the other longtime friends they had had for years. It was as if they had a special connection… and, in fact, they did!

As it turns out, biological mother, Lisa Russell, got pregnant by her boyfriend with Brandy in 1980. However, they weren’t married and Lisa couldn’t afford to take care of the baby, so she gave Brandy up for adoption. Not long afterward, she married that same man who first got her pregnant and had another child, Heidi, who, while growing up, had no idea that her mom had given birth to another child. However, from the time that she can remember, Brandy had always known that she was adopted. She figured that it really sunk in when she was six years old and her family adopted another child.

Brandy’s adoption was “closed”, so the two mothers never met, or actually knew each other, and had no real information about each other beyond generalities. Eventually, Brandy met her biological mother through Heidi. (They are carbon copies of each other on the video interview!) After Lisa found out Brandy’s birthday and at which hospital she was born, she admitted that she had given up a child for adoption. Heidi went to Brandy and said, “Mom mom gave a baby up for adoption and she thinks it’s you!” Brandy informed her adoptive mother, Debbie Visio, who had some clues as to who the birth mother was at the time. Debbie gave Brandy the only clues that she had about Lisa and it was a match!

After everyone put two and two together, Brandy tried to open up her adoption records. As it turned out, it was going to take years get to through the bureaucracy so the two girls decided to get DNA Sibling Test through Chromosomal Laboratories in Phoenix, AZ. Not too long afterwards they got the tests results back… a 99.999% match!

At the time of the interview the families had just received the results a few days prior. Although it seemed like the news was still sinking in, the sisters were overjoyed, thrilled and full of happy emotions… Best friends actually turned out to be sisters!