23andMe, a direct-to-consumer genetic testing company, will roll out expanded ancestry tests that assess customers against more than 150 populations and regions.
23andMe analyzes segments of a customer's DNA to determine whether his or her DNA matches reference populations from Europe, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, the Middle East and Africa. The company's current Ancestry Composition report compares customers' DNA samples to 31 different populations.
Under an updated Ancestry Composition report, 23andMe will review a customer's DNA to identify exact DNA matches to more than 130,000 individuals of known ancestry from 120 additional regions. If a customer has an exact match with at least five individuals from one of the regions, the company designates that region as a "recent ancestor locator."
23andMe will roll out the expanded ancestry tests to customers in the coming months, according to a Feb. 28 company blog post.
"We all have a DNA story, and that story is part of the broader human story. It's a history of people migrating out of Africa and venturing out to populate the globe and build new cultures," 23andMe officials wrote in the blog post. "With this new update, we … add another layer of insights with clues to the location of much more recent ancestors."