I know very little about this. Is it possible to get my sequence from one of the commercial groups doing this, and then "look it up" in a genome reference to verify my brown eyes, for example?
I acknowledge the lack of knowledge leading to the question. But it would be neat if possible.
> Is it possible to get my sequence from one of the commercial groups doing this, and then "look it up" in a genome reference to verify my brown eyes, for example?
Yes and no.
Brown eyes aren't controlled by a single gene, so it's not straightforward to look this up from your genome profile.
What genome profiling companies will do is assay a finite number of specific locations on your DNA (SNPs), to get good comparison points with other people, and then predict what colour your eyes are based on which SNPs are significant for eye colour.
It's not guaranteed to be right, then - nor is it guaranteed that the significant SNPs are linked to relevant genes.
What genome profiling companies will do is assay a finite number of specific locations on your DNA (SNPs)
Companies such as 23andMe will read about 900 000 single letter locations for about $100. But other companies will sequence your whole genome for about $1000, maybe under.
I acknowledge the lack of knowledge leading to the question. But it would be neat if possible.