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Doppelgängers Don't Just Look Alike—They Also Share DNA. New research finds genetic and lifestyle similarities between unrelated pairs of “virtual twins” (www.smithsonianmag.com)

submitted 3 months ago by RegularJoe@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] luthis@lemmy.nz 101 points 3 months ago

Strange, almost like phenotype is dependent on genotype?

[-] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 81 points 3 months ago

You're telling me people whose genetics make them look similar have similar genetics???

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 36 points 3 months ago

Not proven until now.

These “duh” comments are always here in these situations.

[-] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 3 months ago

We're just joking around here my friend :) of course it's important to confirm, still funny every time

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

I hope so, that’s good to hear. Some people seem so pissed off when making such comments about “useless” studies. 😔

[-] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 months ago

People in text always sound more pissed off than they were. That mostly has to do with your expectations though ;)

[-] fartographer@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

You think this sounds angry???

[-] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago

Can you stop yelling?

[-] fartographer@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

sorry. I thought I was being friendly. Perhaps you'd prefer periods as my punctuation. I hope you're happy.

[-] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 months ago

I too have autism.

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[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Big, if true

[-] billionsandbillions@piefed.social 4 points 3 months ago

Colossal, if legitimate

[-] slampisko@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Gargantuan, if verifiable

[-] TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.uk 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Humongous, if credible

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[-] angrystego@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

It seems this includes genes that don't play a direct role in the formation of facial features.

[-] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Yes, but it's not necessarily the only way that would work. So this is very neat!

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[-] ChillCapybara@discuss.tchncs.de 34 points 3 months ago

Researchers say the findings may also someday help police investigators conjure up the faces of suspects from their DNA samples. But that potential application wades into murky ethical territory

There it is

[-] applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 months ago

Yeah I'm sure it will never make a mistake or be relied upon as the gospel of jesus like you see with, oh idk every single piece of technology used by police provided it aligns with their existing bias at the moment

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[-] NullPointerException@lemmy.ca 31 points 3 months ago

DNA has a limited number of genes. Considering the enormous amount of functions they need to encode, the number of genes for each function becomes relatively small. 8 billion people and thousands of generations, we’re bound to have duplicates.

[-] Brocon@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago

I would say it's even smaller in number. Because some combinations would not work and might kill you.

[-] angrystego@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Yes, but the article says that certain combinations occur more often that if it was random. People with similar faces tend to have similar genes that are nor related to facial features.

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[-] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 3 months ago

...We all look like 98% similar.

[-] EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 months ago

they all look the same..

thinks some alien, prolly

[-] Ageroth@reddthat.com 5 points 3 months ago

They're made out of meat

[-] EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I love this short story!

[-] hypna@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

If different people with similar visual characteristics have similar behavioral characteristics, doesn't that imply that perhaps we can judge a book by its cover?

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[-] kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 3 months ago

Bad news for people that look like famous serial killers.

[-] Tiral@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

So that's why I want to make people lamp shades so bad? /s

[-] OldGrayDog@fedinsfw.app 12 points 3 months ago

Or maybe we're living in a simulation and whatever is generating it only has a finite number of characters. 😲

[-] temporal_spider@masto.ai 11 points 3 months ago

@RegularJoe I'm curious about how this might work across ethnicities. I can't point to a photo, but several times, I've noticed people from other continents who could easily be someone I know here, except they're African, or Asian, when the person I know is white, just for example. Under the expected differences in hair, eyes, etc, the basic facial structure is the same. A DNA match seems less likely in these cases.

[-] borth@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago

I don't think it's about a DNA match. Those people you mention could share more DNA than the rest of us, which could account for their similarities, but their DNA will never "match" anyone else's.

[-] Smeagol666@crazypeople.online 5 points 3 months ago

All humans are within 23 degrees of being cousins. The thing that surprised me most is that sub Saharan Africans are the most diverse genetically speaking.

[-] RegularJoe@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

I don't have a great answer other than of the 32 studied, these were their stratification:

Related to population stratification, among the 16 look-alike pairs, 13 were of European ancestry, 1 Hispanic, 1 East Asian, and 1 Central-South Asian.

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(22)01075-0

But whether people who look close enough to perform as another, such as the "Chinese Obama" (Xiao Jiguo) I can't say.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/chinese-president-barack-obama-lookalike-xiao-jiguo-charges-1-500-n444251

Then there's Indonesia's former president, Joko Widodo:

https://nextshark.com/people-love-indonesias-president-looks-like-barack-obama

It would be interesting to get the researchers to analyze their DNA.

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[-] ssfckdt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 months ago

This kinda feels like a "duh." Or a "Well, makes sense"

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[-] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 months ago

I've wondered this about people who act the same. They also tend to have some of the same facial expressions and mannerisms.

Maybe like our brains have certain tempaltes of personalities that we alter along the way. A starter personality of sorts.

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[-] rainbowbunny@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 months ago

How similar is DNA from convergent evolution animals?

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

I mean, my uncle (who spent very little time with his bio father) has all the same mannerisms as him. As do I and my mother and one of my brothers. Some of it is that we inherited similar skeletal structure so our posture is similar. Some of it, I dunno.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

well, at some point, everything is a crab.

so I would assume pretty similar.

great question though.

[-] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 months ago

Why didn't they give FB-007 shirts?

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[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 3 months ago

I always wondered about this in terms of I have known some types of folks that look similar and actually often have similar social traits and this includes me to.

[-] Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago

So should you avoid having kids with someone you look similar too then? Like is it that the virtual twins have genetic similarities akin to 3rd cousins or siblings...