Cia, Chris Francis T.

BSE Science 2-A

Reflection No. 1

People with similar faces likely have similar DNA

“A collection of photos of genetically unrelated look-alikes, along with DNA

analysis, revealed that strong facial similarity is associated with shared genetic
variants.” Said by Cell Reports on the 23rd of August. Due to the increasing number of
people who find someone who looks like them on the internet, the article conducts a
new study in which they recruited 32 look-alike couple whom which are genetically
unrelated to each other. They study the people’s physical appearance and their likeness
to each other through the use of three different facial recognition algorithms. In addition
to studying their physical appearance the researcher also conducts a comprehensive
biometric and lifestyle questionnaire to them and made them provide a sample of their
saliva DNA for multiomics analysis. They gather those samples in order for them to
“study genomics, epigenomics, and microbiomics can contribute to human
resemblance” says by one of the researcher. They found out in the result of their
research that the people whom they conducted their research hare similar genotypes,
but differ in their DNA methylation and microbiome landscapes. They also found out
that aside from the physical trait, the sample individuals also shares a same behavioral
traits such as smoking and education. These result in researchers formulating a
conclusion that says “Taken together, the results suggest that shared genetic variation
not only relates to similar physical appearance, but may also influence common habits
and behavior.” This means that people who shares genetic variation may not only have
a same physical appearance but also a same behavioral attitudes. The researchers said
that the study that have conducted provided them a unique insight into the molecular
characteristics that potentially influence the construction of the human face in which
they can use these for future applications in various fields such as biomedicine,
evolution, and forensics.

Link: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08-people-similar-dna.html