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IT'S IN THE GENES

You’ve mapped out your family tree except for that one wayward branch. The paper trail of official documents has gone cold, and anyone who could have cleared up that clouded family history has long since passed on. Will your true heritage stay a family secret forever?

It turns out that the key to unlocking your genealogical secrets is very close to home. Actually, it lies within you and the DNA imbedded in your cells.

photo: Janelle Kalawe

For $219, DNA Print Genomics, an applied science company, offers ANCESTRYbyDNA, a genetic test that surveys 176 ancestry informative markers to provide an inference of genetic ancestry or heritage. Using complex statistical algorithms, the test can determine to which of the major biogeographical ancestry groups, Sub-Saharan African, European, East Asian or Native American, a person belongs, as well as the relative percentages in cases of mixed peoples.

To take the test, customers simply fill out an order form and consent form and return two cotton swabs with DNA samples collected from the inside of the mouth. A couple of weeks later, DNA Print Genomics sends back an ancestry analysis and certification.

So is this the chance to prove to the rest of the family (and Kamehameha Schools) that you and your children have Native Hawaiian blood?

Yes and no. ANCESTRYbyDNA or any existing genetic test cannot determine Native Hawaiian ancestry in a single sample. Currently, those genetic markers fall under the East Asian ancestral group. However, according to DNA Print Genomics officials, their genetic test can provide a slew of answers if the right questions are asked of them.

“Native Hawaiian ancestry is too closely related to East Asian groups, not to mention other Polynesians. Two or three thousand years is a long time in human lifetimes, but it is just not that long when you’re talking about genetic change,” says Dr. Jason Eshleman, senior research scientist at Trace Genetics, a subsidiary of DNA Print Genomics. “However, if family legend says that one of your ancestors was Hawaiian and you’re able one way or another to rule out any Asian ancestry, then our test can tell you a lot. It may not be enough to get you into Kamehameha, but it may be able to validate a family story. For a lot of people, that’s enough.”

More information on DNA Print Genomics and ANCESTRYbyDNA can be found at www.dnaprint.com

– David K. Choo

BLOGWATCH: IF YOU BLOG IT, WILL THEY COME?

Believe it or not, a senior research scientist for Oceanit is musing about life in outer space in his new blog on the company Web site. Titled Wise Cracks, Paul Pernambuco-Wise has also made entries on such topics as suspended animation and desychronosis,err, jet lag to most of us.

We suggest having a pot of coffee on hand if you venture into this blog with anything less an A- in high school physics. The Web site, www.oceanit.com, also has ask-the-experts forums.

The bigger questions for us is whether Oceanit will spur other local companies seeking a stronger Web presence to start blogging – and if anyone will read them. For now, Hawaii Business gives Oceanit the Vulcan salute just for putting it out there.

– Scott Radway

From time to time, Hawaii Business checks in with local executives to see what’s on their reading and play lists. Those familiar with Paul Brewbaker, one of the state’s leading economists, won’t be at all surprised to discover that his tastes are as eclectic as his personality. – Jacy L. Youn

BAMBOO BUFFET

Jimmy Buffet’s tour was swinging through Hawaii last year when Mark Elwell, owner of Bamboo Flooring Hawaii, got to know some of Buffet’s crew. So Elwell made two bamboo guitar bodies and gave them to Buffet’s crew, who in turn outfitted them with Fender Stratocaster pickups and necks and gave them to Buffet. “My point is bamboo has a million things you can do with it,” Elwell says.

photo courtesy: Mark Elwell

Buffet turned around and autographed one guitar and returned it to Elwell. But don’t expect to see any bamboo guitars on eBay soon. Elwell has only made three, and Henry Kapono has the last one.

– Scott Radway

WHAT?
Hawaii Business defines often-spoken words, new and old,to help you make sense of what’s being said.

Manini:
a Hawaiian word, is a kind of fish, banana, sugar cane, taro and sweet potato. Later, it became slang for stingy. Hawaiians in the late 1700s transliterated the name of Spanish immigrant and early horticulturalist Francisco de Paula Marin. Marin, who was responsible for introducing citrus fruits to the Islands, wouldn’t share his harvest with his neighbors. More recently, manini has become slang for small, insignificant and petty.

– David K. Choo

Email confusing words to hbeditorial@pacificbasin.net

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