Your DNA may reveal whether you started out as an identical twin in the womb. 👯♀️👀
Identical twins originate from one egg cell that splits and gives rise to two embryos, but during development, one twin sometimes"vanishes," leaving only one baby to be born. Now, a new study hints that your DNA may reveal whether you started out as an identical twin in the womb, even if your twin disappeared long before your birth.
In theory, such a tool would also be able to spot someone who'd had a vanishing twin, although the new study didn't test this idea.In essence, this methyl group pattern is a kind of"molecular scar" left over from identical twins' early embryonic development, said Robert Waterland, a professor of pediatrics and genetics at Baylor College of Medicine who was not involved in the new study.
An estimated 12% of human pregnancies start out as multiple pregnancies, but less than 2% are carried to term, meaning the rest result in a so-called vanishing twin, according to a 1990 report in the International Journal of Fertility and Sterility. Overall, in cases where both twins make it to term, fraternal twins are generally more common than identical ones.
The team wondered if the solution to this mystery might be encoded in the methyl groups decorating a person's DNA, since the molecules help to control embryonic development in its very earliest stages. And thanks to special proteins called methyltransferases, the methyl groups added to our DNA in development get copied down as our cells continue to divide, meaning they can stick around into adulthood.
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