Markers / Gene
NAT2
One position in this gene is readable from a home DNA test.
Fast or slow acetylator
rs1799930 · chr8:18,258,103 · G/A · evidence: established
NAT2 clears a specific class of chemicals: several drugs, and the compounds formed when meat is charred. Roughly half of Europeans are slow acetylators and clear them sluggishly. The frequency shifted as populations took up farming, and it is one of the best documented cases of diet reshaping a detoxification gene.
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies | Fast acetylator at this position |
| One copy | Intermediate |
| Two copies | Slow acetylator at this position |
| Ancestry group | A (the effect version) | |
|---|---|---|
| African | 23.8% | |
| American | 17.1% | |
| East Asian | 25.6% | |
| European | 28.2% | |
| South Asian | 36.0% |
1000 Genomes Project phase 3, via Ensembl, retrieved 2026-09-23. These groupings are coarse and flatten a great deal of internal diversity, particularly within Africa. A variant being common somewhere tells you where a piece of your ancestry probably comes from, and nothing else.
Where this gene fits
If you have taken a home DNA test, these positions are already in your file.
Read my file