Move over, kilt test; Scots can be ID’D by spit
OTTAWA – Used to be, identifying a true Scotsman required a peek under a certain plaid garment.
Now, with the help of an Ottawa firm, a more definitive test has arrived.
DNA Genotek said Friday its Oragene saliva collection kit will be employed by ScotlandsDNA, a new genetic testing company that specializes in establishing Braveheart bona fides.
Genotek’s products are used for health testing and genetic research — in people and, more recently, livestock — but corporate marketing manager Shauna White says this is its first application in consumer family-tree tracing.
And while the kilt test might be described as breezy, the saliva test is equally a breeze. Unlike traditional DNA tests that involve blood samples or cheek swabs, the Oragene process requires only that the individual spit into a container (smaller than a sporran) and send the sample along by mail.
Samples will be compared at the Queen Mary University of London Genome Centre to a database of “thousands of ancestry-informative markers spanning the Y chromosome, autosomes and mtDNA,” all selected for Scottish ancestry, DNA Genotek said. The cost is more than $300.
As with that other method, the results should be revealing.
“Scotland is a nation of men and women of tremendously diverse origins — with strong Celtic, Viking, Norman and Anglo-Saxon influences,” the company says. “This richness can be characterized by DNA testing and using an aggregate of many individual stories, a genetic history of Scotland can be created.”