What is genetic testing?

What is genetic testing?

Genetic testing is a type of medical test that identifies changes in genes, chromosomes or proteins. This is done in order to detect genetic conditions and to ascertain a person’s chances of developing a genetic disorder or passing it on to their offspring. It can also be used in embryo screening, to determine whether or not the embryo has inherited or developed any defects. Besides that, it is also useful for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) to select embryos without any genetic disorders

How does it work?

DNA is essentially a sequence of nucleotides that codes for the amino acid chain that makes up a protein.. The sequence of the four bases, Adenine [A], Cytosine [C], Thymine [T] and Guanine [G] on DNA determine which amino acid will be used to synthesize the protein. Every 3 bases corresponds to one amino acid.

To put it simply, this is how genetic testing works: