A pair of identical twins received differing ancestry estimates from the same direct-to-consumer genetic testing firms, CBC reports.
Charlsie and Carly Agro bought DNA testing kits from AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and Living DNA, and CBC reports that while they received similar results from each of the companies, the results the twins had were not as close to each other as expected. For instance, 23andMe found that Charlsie has 28 percent Eastern European ancestry, while Carly has 24.7 percent Eastern European ancestry, according to CBC.
"The fact that they present different results for you and your sister, I find very mystifying," Yale University's Mark Gerstein tells Charlsie, who is the host of CBC's Marketplace.
CBC adds that Gerstein and his team were able to download Charlsie and Carly's raw data and found it to be 99.6 percent the same. This, it adds, confused Gerstein as to why they had different results, though he adds that it is likely due to the algorithms the companies use. Indeed, 23andMe tells CBC that even small difference can lead its algorithm to make slightly different estimates of ancestry.
The results between the companies also differed, CBC reports, noting that AncestryDNA found Charlsie to have 39 percent Eastern European ancestry and Carly to have 38 percent Eastern European ancestry, higher than what 23andMe reported.