Close-Kin Indication

[Padgett]

I have tested my mother's autosomal DNA on 24 markers. Of those, she has the same value on 6 of those markers. This means that she inherited the same allele from both her father and mother on these 6 markers.

Does this suggest that her parents were closely related? Or is it common to share so many common alleles?

[rucksack]

I have tested my mother's autosomal DNA on 24 markers. Of those, she has the same value on 6 of those markers. This means that she inherited the same allele from both her father and mother on these 6 markers.

Does this suggest that her parents were closely related? Or is it common to share so many common alleles?

This could be "chance" which is actually more than likely if onlt comparing on 6 markers, or it could simply indicate that they come from the same "general" area.

What lab did the testing?

Usually, a "mother" has a high likelihood of having "parents" from the same regions, unless you are privy to something that is outside of this thinking.

What do you actually know about their backgrounds / ancestry?

[Ann Turner]

It depends on the allele distribution for the specific markers, but yes, it's certainly common to have some homozygous results. For instance, about 1/3 of people will have 8-8 for TPOX. You can look up the distributions for the standard CODIS set at

http://www.csfs.ca/pplus/profiler.htm