DNAprint Genomics (DNAG)

[mingwan0]

frog, yes it does seem at first sight to be a limitation. The DNAP pigmentation patent application describes the issues with iris color determination, and "brown" does seem to have some unique wrinkles of its own. However, despite these, the following is stated in the application:

"Having identified several penetrant feature SNP combinations of variable iris color shade, the analysis was extended to more completely investigate the associations of their penetrant genetic features with specific eye colors. From a contingency analysis of haplotypes and multilocus genotypes versus iris colors (blue, green, hazel, brown and black), numerous significantly associated alleles and allele combinations were associated..."

They seem to have found the eye color genes, some of which are also good ancestry informative markers (the special significance of pigmentation genes) but it is a complex trait involving multiple genes. Given the qualifications that are in the press release, perhaps "brown" for non-caucasian remains an issue that will be addressed in a future version of the product; notwithstanding the fact that we know intuitively that a very high percentage of individuals of non-caucasian ancestry will have brown eyes.

There was another interesting tidbit in the press release:

"DNAPrint's success with this difficult trait has profound implications for its goal of developing a pipeline of small molecule drugs that target specific human subpopulations,"