The genetics of identical twins are in the news, indeed! (And I’ll bet on daytime TV talkshows, if the producers can talk them into it.)

You suggest that the Millers’ love child or his/her guardian store DNA from Raymon and Richard Miller for future analysis. Perhaps we should send them some DNA Archives, which use the new Biomatrica DNA SampleMatrix technology to store DNA safely, indefinitely. Then, their child has the *choice* whether or not to pursue more genetic information later, when testing technology is further developed.

In the case of the State of Missouri and Holly Marie Adams vs. Raymon and Richard Miller, the paternity test showed that the two brothers both had a 99.999% probability of being the father

What a bizzare abuse of statistics – assuming they were truly twins (not a pair of siblings from triplets, quads etc.) then they both Raymon and Richard have a 49.9995% probability of being the father.

Thanks for writing this. When I first heard of this story, I was kinda annoyed at the writeups because they were all claiming that it’s “impossible” to tell the difference between the two twins by genetics, but that’s totally not true–there’s just no commercial test available yet (as you pointed out).

Interesting post. I wonder if the changes you talk about will be found in all cells or just in a subset of each twin’s cells. If just a subset, then I suppose the differences you describe will need to happen in the sperm DNA the twin contributes to the child in order to be used in a paternity test.

[...] testing. And twins… Hsien Lei trumped my posts on twins (as always) with her discussion about a paternity suit involving identical twin brothers. She explains more about how there can be genetic differences between identical twins, who hatch [...]

[...] Hsien-Hsien Lei at Eye on DNA examined the genetic differences between identical twins. [...]

[...] to anyone who has known identical twins that are as different as night and day. See more at “Genetic Differences Between Identical Twins” at Eye on DNA, “Non-Identical Identical Twins” at John Hawks Weblog, and [...]

[...] nitpicky point about the DNA fact that “identical twins have identical DNA”…erm, not quite [...]

I realize there have been no comments since April, 2008, but I am a product of this type situation. My mother was married to one twin (identical) when she conceived me and married to the other twin when I was born. Talk about an identity problem all of my life. I have always wondered if identical twins shared the exact same DNA, but never researched this. Didn’t want to make waves! But today, Friday, December 19, 2008, my uncle (or possibly father) was killed in an automobile accident. So, now I sit here reflecting on life, questions, answers, etc…

i think that twins think the same thihng and can feel what the other can feel

I was actually looking this up to prove it to a friend who didn’t believe it! My daughter’s father is an identical twin, and thankfully when we divorced, he was gracious and took 100% responsibility. There was a lot of talk in our town though, because she looks like her daddy so much, and I’m best friends with her uncle. Whenever people ask me which one’s the dad, I just give them a straight look dead in the eye, and say “Pick one…” or “Can YOU tell them apart?” I like to leave them guessing! Easier than defending myself.

[...] reality, identical twins do not have perfectly identical DNA due to epigenomic chemical modifications and DNA copy number variations. But until more [...]