Your DNA Might Reveal If You Had A Twin Who ‘Vanished’ Before Birth
Image via ID 123105533 © Gaewchiangmai | Dreamstime.com
According to a report made in 1990 in the International Journal of Fertility and Sterility, there are an estimated 12% of pregnancies that start out as multiple pregnancies, but fewer than 2% are carried fully to term to see twins being born.
So, this means that there is a chance that many people, as mere embryos, started their development in the womb alongside another twin. But only one child was born, and the other had mysteriously vanished. Will the person who was born ever know?
A new study published this week in the journal Nature Communications may have the answer.
In twin DNA, there are some epigenetic modifications, which are essentially factors in the gene code that can switch genes “on” and “off” without any change to the base DNA sequence, as explained by Live Science.
The study states that the DNA of identical twins comes with a pattern of sticky methyl groups—small molecules that cling to genes and prevent their cells from reading them, flipping the switch to “off”—that are found only in identical twins, and not even fraternal twins.
This could allow experts to analyze DNA to find out if a person carries that “off” gene, which might then indicate that they had a vanishing twin at some point very early on.
Although this wasn’t tested, the scientists developed an algorithm said to be able to reliably identify someone who was part of a pair of identical twins.
Granted, whether or not you had a twin that vanished very early on into the developmental process is not something that one would absolutely need to know. However, there’s no denying that the ability to tell via this “signature” that we carry forever—yet wouldn’t have been aware of otherwise—is pretty cool.
[via Live Science, image via ID 123105533 © Gaewchiangmai | Dreamstime.com]
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