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This will certainly put a damper on the sperm donation market.

quesera 4y ago
An individual sperm cell does not contain a full genome. You cannot even reliably determine a donor's hair color, from a single sperm cell. I imagine it's much more difficult to reconstruct a full genome from a sperm donation than from, say, saliva on a discarded cup.
- chromatin 4y ago
  This comment is misleading, and possibly wrong depending on what you mean by “full genome” (not an accepted technical term). A sperm cell contains one complete haploid genome.
  - quesera 4y ago
    You're right, it's not as simple as I described. But (my bio is rusty) a haploid genome (gamete) cannot fully represent the genome of a diploid human. If you're looking for genetic disorders, these will often be the result of recessive traits, right? So having only half of the chromosome sets is not indicative. That's my example of hair color. With a full genome sequence, you could determine the person's hair color, but with a haploid genome, you could not. If OP's joke is about the privacy implications of sperm donation, then saliva seems more risky.
    - omgwtfbyobbq 4y ago
      From what I've read, recessive genetic disorders tend to be worse, but there are plenty of dominant and polygenic disorders with * varying degrees of penetrance. * This I think indicates some other genetic and/or environmental factors we don't have a good grasp of.
    - d110af5ccf 4y ago
      A single sperm cell can't. But you presumably have an awful lot of them in a single sample. So this seems irrelevant to the privacy concerns being discussed here.
      - quesera 4y ago
        ...and that's what I said. It would be more difficult than from saliva.
        d110af5ccf 4y ago
        Yes but in context this is completely irrelevant. The context was originally the privacy implications of donating sperm. And those are definitely real.
    - chromatin 4y ago
      > a haploid genome (gamete) cannot fully represent the genome of a diploid human Correct; my broader point was that when most people refer to a "human genome" it is ambiguous whether they mean diploid or haploid unless specified. Metrics like "3 billion base pairs" etc. actually describe the haploid human genome. > If you're looking for genetic disorders, these will often be the result of recessive traits, right? So having only half of the chromosome sets is not indicative. Often, but not always; there are myriad autosomal dominant disorders, as well as sex-linked disorders which require only a single mutant allele on X > If OP's joke is about the privacy implications of sperm donation, then saliva seems more risky. Here I think both with STR and SNP profiling you are equally at risk (i.e., saliva is not more risky)
- etiam 4y ago
  As you're probably aware, most people who donate sperm opt for more than a single cell...
  - quesera 4y ago
    Right. Hence "more difficult" than from saliva. Think about it. Each sperm cell gets a random mix of your chromosome sets. There are 2^23 possibilities. But of course you only need to find the matched pair for each chromosome. So you'd only need a few hundred cells. I'm not a geneticist, but that sounds like a much harder genome sequencing/assembly problem than the fully matched set you'd get from saliva etc.

An individual sperm cell does not contain a full genome. You cannot even reliably determine a donor's hair color, from a single sperm cell. I imagine it's much more difficult to reconstruct a full genome from a sperm donation than from, say, saliva on a discarded cup.

chromatin 4y ago
This comment is misleading, and possibly wrong depending on what you mean by “full genome” (not an accepted technical term). A sperm cell contains one complete haploid genome.
- quesera 4y ago
  You're right, it's not as simple as I described. But (my bio is rusty) a haploid genome (gamete) cannot fully represent the genome of a diploid human. If you're looking for genetic disorders, these will often be the result of recessive traits, right? So having only half of the chromosome sets is not indicative. That's my example of hair color. With a full genome sequence, you could determine the person's hair color, but with a haploid genome, you could not. If OP's joke is about the privacy implications of sperm donation, then saliva seems more risky.
  - omgwtfbyobbq 4y ago
    From what I've read, recessive genetic disorders tend to be worse, but there are plenty of dominant and polygenic disorders with * varying degrees of penetrance. * This I think indicates some other genetic and/or environmental factors we don't have a good grasp of.
  - d110af5ccf 4y ago
    A single sperm cell can't. But you presumably have an awful lot of them in a single sample. So this seems irrelevant to the privacy concerns being discussed here.
    - quesera 4y ago
      ...and that's what I said. It would be more difficult than from saliva.
      - d110af5ccf 4y ago
        Yes but in context this is completely irrelevant. The context was originally the privacy implications of donating sperm. And those are definitely real.
  - chromatin 4y ago
    > a haploid genome (gamete) cannot fully represent the genome of a diploid human Correct; my broader point was that when most people refer to a "human genome" it is ambiguous whether they mean diploid or haploid unless specified. Metrics like "3 billion base pairs" etc. actually describe the haploid human genome. > If you're looking for genetic disorders, these will often be the result of recessive traits, right? So having only half of the chromosome sets is not indicative. Often, but not always; there are myriad autosomal dominant disorders, as well as sex-linked disorders which require only a single mutant allele on X > If OP's joke is about the privacy implications of sperm donation, then saliva seems more risky. Here I think both with STR and SNP profiling you are equally at risk (i.e., saliva is not more risky)
etiam 4y ago
As you're probably aware, most people who donate sperm opt for more than a single cell...
- quesera 4y ago
  Right. Hence "more difficult" than from saliva. Think about it. Each sperm cell gets a random mix of your chromosome sets. There are 2^23 possibilities. But of course you only need to find the matched pair for each chromosome. So you'd only need a few hundred cells. I'm not a geneticist, but that sounds like a much harder genome sequencing/assembly problem than the fully matched set you'd get from saliva etc.