[katieHaylor (OP)]

Ken asks:

Who is my closest genetic relative? My parents? My children? My siblings?

What do you think?

[chiralSPO]

Well, if you have an identical twin (or more) than they are the closest relative(s).

Whether you are a girl or a boy (more so for girls), you are probably least genetically similar to your father, because all children inherit their mothers' mitochondrial DNA. Also the X chromosome is substantially longer than the Y, so even a boy would have more genetic material from his mother than his father (not counting mitochondrial DNA).

Beyond that, *I'm* out of my league. There are probably others on the forum who can give even more nuanced answers.

[smiguel]

And after an identical twin, the closest genetics are

your parent and
your children

[evan_au]

While your chromosomes are a selection that comes from your parents, they are not identical to the chromosomes that your parents carry.

During DNA copying, there is a finite probability of making a copying error, which may result in one amino acid being substituted for another.

During meiosis, "crossovers" can occur:
- The two chromosomes line up before the crossover, so you end up with 1 chromosome which is a hybrid of two chromosomes carried by your parents.
- But the lineup isn't exact
- If the break is in the middle of an active gene, the resulting gene may be mutated, with some base pairs omitted or duplicated. This may inactivate the protein produced by the gene.
- If the alignment is particularly poor, you may end up with multiple copies of a gene, or several genes omitted.

In most cases, the errors can be overcome by proteins generated from the chromosome inherited from your other parent, as it is unlikely that exactly the same protein will be mutated.

These types of mutations are best found by "triple sequencing": reading your genome, plus those of your parents, and comparing them to see where the mutations have occurred.

[cheryl j]

I thought this was a nice article about the topic. http://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/siblings-are-around-fifty-percent-related
As the article points out, 50% related for siblings is a mean value, and because of the way your parent's chromosomes can be sorted during meiosis, it is possible to be much less, or much more, genetically similar to a brother and sister.

[Bored chemist]

It's interesting that people think they have 50% of their DNA in common with their father and 98% of their DNA in common with a a chimp.

This overlooks the fact that your mother's DNA is very nearly identical with your father's; that's why they are both  the same species.