23 & me for orchids. Does it exist?

[BrassavolaStars]

Hello all,

I am rather curious if there exists some kind of genetic testing for orchid hybrids (or plants in general) that shows ancestry. Something akin to 23 and me. Is there a service where you could send some plant DNA in and it is analyzed for what “ingredients” are in a hybrid? I have some very complex NOID plants I am curious about.

Does such a service exist? If it does, how would I find it?

I guess in the case of orchids, instead of 23 and me, it would be somewhere around 40, 46, or 52 and me. I think I heard somewhere the chromosomal range for orchids is 10-168 with most genera having between 38-78

[DirtyCoconuts]

Interesting idea. I have not heard of such a thing but I bet the local university farm lab would be a place to start

[hypostatic]

I don't think so...

However, I did find that there are 7 full genome assemblies that have been submitted to NCBI:

Orchidaceae - Assembly - NCBI

[neophyte]

it's an interesting idea...

23andme works because the human genome has been sequenced so many times that the company can just sequence specific places in the genome to detect certain segments that indicate a high probability of being a certain race, having a certain disease, etc.

unless the species you are looking for has already been sequenced (possibly several times), it would be difficult to determine what the orchid is.

[piping plover]

What a great idea. It’s a service I would like also. I lost the label for my cattleya 30 years ago and it’s my favorite orchid.