Monday, March 20, 2006

Genographic project, my ancestors and haplogroup L

The Genographic project (https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html ) analyzed my DNA and put my parental origins in India. This is strange as my paternal line was thought to come from Northern Europe and I don’t look Indian. It is possible but my haplogroup “L” is rarely found out side of central India. They use small tandem repeats (STRs) of DNA as markers and there are a number of STRs on the Y chromosome. These STRs can vary in length and the differences in lengths can be compared to others around the world. Certain lengths of certain STRs are found more frequently in people from one region than from another. For example, STR DYS19 can have lengths of 10 to 19. These patterns can be used to show how and where one’s ancestors migrated out of Africa. However, the Genographic results listed my STR DYS389-2: as 16 but none of the databases I have consulted (such as http://ybase.org/shaplo.asp )lists a 389-2 with a length of 16. They are all above 20. I believe that the Genographic project made a mistake.

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