Newsletter #8

DNA Study Concludes Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket was a Native American, not legendary Dutch Caucasian

Research Revises Popular Legend

Advance for release
Friday, December 1, 2006

Columbus (December 1, 2006) . . . The great Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket, who played a pivotal role in the early history of southwestern Ohio, was not the legendary Dutch Caucasian named Marmaduke Van Swearingen, according to research published today in The Ohio Journal of Science.

Barring any questions of the paternity of the Chief's single son who lived to produce male heirs, the �Blue Jacket-with-Caucasian-roots" legend is not based on reality,� said Carolyn D. Rowland, an analyst at Forensic Bioinformatics, Inc. in Fairborn, Ohio, and lead author of the report.

Using the tools of modern molecular biology and genetics Rowland and her colleagues tested the issue of paternity by analyzing cheek tissue samples collected from six direct male line descendants of George I Blue Jacket, son of Chief Blue Jacket and his wife Metis� Baby. Similarly, researchers collected samples from the Swearingen male line from two direct male descendants also six generations removed from Charles Swearingen; and one each from direct descendants of Marmaduke Swearingen's paternal great-uncles, Samuel Swearingen and John Swearingen.

According to the article, if it is accepted that George I was Chief Blue Jacket's son, it can be reasonably concluded that the famous Shawnee war chief was in fact a Native American and that the popular story surrounding his relatedness to Dutch settlers is without merit.

Written and oral accounts have claimed that the young Marmaduke Van Swearingen was captured by the Shawnee while he was wearing a blue linsey blouse or hunting shirt. That article of clothing is then said to have given rise to his Indian name when he became enamored with and dedicated to the way of the Shawnee and, ultimately, became Chief of the Shawnee by the age of twenty-five.

The paternally inherited Y chromosome, the focus of this research, has become a particularly important tool for such genealogical reconstructions as well as other purposes including forensics, molecular archaeology, nonhuman primate genetics and human evolutionary studies. The Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings affair and the identification of the remains of Christopher Columbus are among the more prominent oral traditions that have been directly tested by such DNA comparisons.

The lead author of the report, Ms. Carolyn Rowland, is currently an analyst at Forensic Bioinformatics, Inc. in where she reviews case files including GenophilerTM output, laboratory notes and serological results associated with forensic DNA testing. She has reviewed and consulted with the lead attorneys of more than 400 cases over the past four years.

Other authors included R. V. Van Trees, Major, USAF (Ret.), historian, genealogist and author; Marc S. Taylor, technical advisor to the Quincy TV series and lead scientist at Technical Associates in Ventura, CA; Dr. Michael Raymer, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Wright State University; and Dr. Dan Krane, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Wright State University.

Vikings Left Little Genetic Trace in Ireland

European Journal of Human Genetics (2006) 14, 1288�1294. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201709; published online 6 September 2006

"The scale and nature of Viking settlement in Ireland from Y-chromosome admixture analysis"

By Brian McEvoy, Claire Brady, Laoise T Moore and Daniel G Bradley

Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

You may want to consider returning your "Viking Certificate." According to a new study of Y chromosome lineages among Irish males with surnames seeming to indicate Norse ancestry, the Vikings did not leave as much of an imprint on the Irish population as many people would like to think. After all, they only stayed for a couple of centuries in most cases before going back to Norway. That's not much time to leave a sizable genetic legacy, even if you are a Viking.

ABSTRACT

The Vikings (or Norse) played a prominent role in Irish history but, despite this, their genetic legacy in Ireland, which may provide insights into the nature and scale of their immigration, is largely unexplored. Irish surnames, some of which are thought to have Norse roots, are paternally inherited in a similar manner to Y-chromosomes. The correspondence of Scandinavian patrilineal ancestry in a cohort of Irish men bearing surnames of putative Norse origin was examined using both slow mutating unique event polymorphisms and relatively rapidly changing short tandem repeat Y-chromosome markers. Irish and Scandinavian admixture proportions were explored for both systems using six different admixture estimators, allowing a parallel investigation of the impact of method and marker type in Y-chromosome admixture analysis. Admixture proportion estimates in the putative Norse surname group were highly consistent and detected little trace of Scandinavian ancestry. In addition, there is scant evidence of Scandinavian Y-chromosome introgression in a general Irish population sample. Although conclusions are largely dependent on the accurate identification of Norse surnames, the findings are consistent with a relatively small number of Norse settlers (and descendents) migrating to Ireland during the Viking period (ca. AD 800�1200) suggesting that Norse colonial settlements might have been largely composed of indigenous Irish. This observation adds to previous genetic studies that point to a flexible Viking settlement approach across North Atlantic Europe.

Genetic breakthrough reveals
differences between humans

Scientists hail genetic discovery that will change human understanding

By Steve Connor, Science Editor, The Independent
Published: 23 November 2006

Scientists have discovered a dramatic variation in the genetic make-up of humans that could lead to a fundamental reappraisal of what causes incurable diseases and could provide a greater understanding of mankind.

The discovery has astonished scientists studying the human genome - the genetic recipe of man. Until now it was believed the variation between people was due largely to differences in the sequences of the individual " letters" of the genome.

HapMap Takes Leap Forward

Nature Genetics - 38, 1251 - 1260 (2006)

A worldwide survey of haplotype variation and linkage disequilibrium in the human genome

By Conrad D. F. et al.

Recent genomic surveys have produced a high level of information, and the HapMap project has raised high hopes for mapping genetic determinants of complex human disease, but only in a small number of human populations. Haplotype structure is reported here in 927 individuals representing 52 populations, a significant increase. The geographic distribution of haplotypes reflects human history. The emerging HapMap will be helpful for the design of genome-wide association mapping studies in nearly all human populations.


Neanderthal Genetic Secrets About to Be Unraveled

Nature, 16 November 2006
Neanderthal Genomics

Editor's Summary
Neanderthal traits appear in the human fossil record of Europe and western Asia about 400,000 years ago and vanish about 30,000 years ago. The Neanderthals are our closest extinct relatives, so as DNA technology advances the tantalizing prospect of identifying genetic changes characteristic of fully modern humans comes closer. A 38,000-year-old Neanderthal bone of sufficiently high quality to allow the extraction of more than a million base pairs has now been identified: it was originally found Vindija cave in Croatia (pictured on the cover) in 1980. Comparison of its DNA with the chimp and human genomes reveals that Neanderthal and human ancestors � like humans but unlike apes � had a small effective population size. The technology used in this work offers the prospect of a draft Neanderthal genome within two years.

Home Ancestry Test Uses
Same DNA Evidence as TV Shows


SANTA FE, N.M. -- (September 19, 2006) -- DNA Consulting has introduced a home DNA test that can unravel one's ancestry based on the same genetic markers used by detectives on TV shows. The company's DNA Fingerprint Test determines 16 genetic markers that make each of us unique and compares them to a database that can explain an individual's particular ethnic mix, or genetic signature. No two people have the same signature, composed of an equal number of genes inherited from mother and father, and from their parents, on and on back in time.

The new addition to genetic genealogy allows people to see their Top Ten closest matches in 180 populations. Previous products were limited to revealing the direct male or direct female lineage, based respectively on Y chromosome markers we receive from our father or on mitochondrial DNA passed to us by our mother. DNA Fingerprint Test looks at all our inheritance. It is as simple as collecting cheek cells at home with a cotton swab and mailing the sample back to the lab. It can be ordered online at www.dnaconsultants.com.

While other tests concentrated on populations in the past and human migration patterns, DNA Fingerprint's matches are to living persons. According to principal investigator Donald N. Yates, it is the first test to address such questions as, "Why do I have the physical appearance that I have?" and, "Do I have any Scandinavian, Chinese or English in my total genetic makeup?"

"The ancestry results are current, practical and very accurate," said Yates, "The accompanying report is valid for other family members and makes an unusual high-tech present for birthdays, marriages and anniversaries."

The 16 markers analyzed by the test include the so-called CODIS markers that are standard in the forensic profession. Individual test scores are input into a public database called OmniPop. Unlike criminal cases, however, all matches are anonymous. All results are confidential.

DNA Fingerprint sells for $250.00 and is an exclusive new product offering of DNA Consulting.

Myths of British History

Prospect, October 2006

Everything you know about British and Irish ancestry is wrong, according to geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer. Our English ancestors were Basques, not Celts. The Celts were not wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons, in fact neither had much impact on the genetic stock of these islands. And a form of English, not Celtic, was spoken in most places before the Roman invasion. Phylogenetic studies have overturned many of the commonly held beliefs about British history. Read article.

I'm Irish and German . . . Think Again
New DNA Fingerprint Test Uncovers
Deep Ancestry That May Contain Surprises

Houston Chronicle, September 30, 2006

Carolina Miranda thought she was purely Hispanic. But when she took the new DNA Fingerprint test for ancestry she learned she had matches with Poland and Mozambique.

Her experience inspired a young journalism student sure that she was Irish and Polish and German to go on the same journey into the past. "I was shocked to see that my strongest genetic roots were in Spain, followed closely by the Himalayan region of India," said Asheley Herzog. "Other top matches included Turkey, Norway, Romania and Saudi Arabia -- places I'd never dreamed of identifying with. And I apparently should not waste time searching for long-lost relatives at Oktoberfest parties this year: Germany graced the bottom of the list, barely beating Northern Italy as a contributor to my genetic profile."

Read article.

Human Lymphocyte Antigens
Studied for Disease Association

By P.I.W. de Bakker et al.

Nature Genetics 38:1166 - 1172
Published online: 24 September 2006

For the first time, scientists have created a high-resolution haplotype map for disease association studies in humans.

The proteins encoded by Human Lymphocyte Antigen (HLA) genes are highly diverse, yet their variation is a crucial determinant for a large number of infectious and autoimmune diseases. Identification of causes for disease is difficult because linkage disequilibrium extends across multiple genes. The international team of scientists therefore set out to characterize the classical HLA genes and more than 7,500 common SNPs across four population samples. The analysis provides a sweeping new basis for the study of disease associations.


New Research Overturns
Single Origin of Man

Nature Reviews Genetics 7, 669-680 (September 2006)

"Reconstructing human origins in the genomic era"

By Daniel Garrigan and Michael F. Hammer

Analyses of recently acquired genomic sequence data are leading to important insights into the early evolution of anatomically modern humans, as well as into the more recent demographic processes that accompanied the global radiation of Homo sapiens. Some of the new results contradict early, but still influential, conclusions that were based on analyses of gene trees from mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome sequences. In this review, we discuss the different genetic and statistical methods that are available for studying human population history, and identify the most plausible models of human evolution that can accommodate the contrasting patterns observed at different loci throughout the genome.


Database of Mission Indians
Now Online for Researchers

August 8, 2006

Reclaiming a neglected part of California's past, historians Monday unveiled an immense data bank that for the first time chronicles the lives and deaths of more than 100,000 Indians in the Spanish missions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

In an eight-year effort, researchers at the Huntington Library in San Marino used handwritten records of baptisms, marriages and deaths at 21 Catholic missions and two other sites from between 1769 and 1850 and created a cross-referenced computerized repository that is now open to public access.

The database should be a big boon to families researching their Southwest Indian ancestor who was adopted.

Role of Natural Selection in Evolution Proved on Genetic Level

From the article "A Map of Recent Positive Selection in the Human Genome," by Benjamin F. Voight et al., PloS Biology 4/3: March 2006

A team of evolutionary biologists have created the first comprehensive map of genes involved in natural selection, using newly available, dense, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from the International HapMap Project. "Signals of natural selection are incredibly widespread across the human genome," one of the researchers was quoted as saying in the New York Times (July 24, 2006).

"Everywhere we look, there appears to be very widespread signals of natural selection in many genes and many processes."

Examples of recent selection were demonstrated by high resolution study of the human genome in populations all over the world, but this factor in evolution was strongest in the Yoruba of sub-Saharan Africa.

Different genetic signals responsible for different physical attributes such as skin color and fitness were "clocked" for the first time.

Read more.

Scientists Plan to Rebuild Neanderthal Genome

By NICHOLAS WADE
The New York Times, July 20, 2006

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Leipzig, Germany, plan to reconstruct the genome of Neanderthals, the archaic human species that occupied Europe from 300,000 years ago until 30,000 years ago until being displaced by modern humans.

The genome will initially be reconstructed using DNA extracted from Neanderthal bones that are 45,000 years old, which were found in Croatia, though bones from other sites may be analyzed later.

The project is a collaboration between Dr. Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and 454 Life Sciences, a Connecticut company that has developed a new method of sequencing, or decoding, DNA.

The sequencing of Neanderthal DNA, long a forlorn hope, suddenly seems possible more

Roots of Human Family Tree Shallower Than Previously Believed

Santa Fe New Mexican/Associated Press
July 1, 2006

By Matt Crenson


Humphrey Bogart

Brooke Shields is probably a descendant of Lucrezia Borgia. Humphrey Bogart is probably a descendant of the prophet Muhammad. And so it goes. Geneticists used to believe that "everybody on earth descends from somebody who was around as recently as the reign of Tutankhamen," according to an article titled "Brotherhood of Man." But revised thinking on their part puts the most remote common ancestor(MRCA)in a much more modern timeframe, so that nearly everyone alive can claim Charlemagne and Ghengis Khan as an ancestor, if statistics and random mating hold true.

The reason is that many, many lines die out. Those that survive have huge numbers of descendants within a few generations, and all of us have huge numbers of ancestors going back to a small genetic pool about a thousand years ago. So a 13-marker Y-STR match such as those reported in Male DNA Ancestry products from DNA Consulting relates to a relatively recent timeframe, unlike previous theories that a match went back many thousands of years to a common male ancestor.

A Monkey's Uncle

From Nature Alert, 28 June 2006

According to an article titled, "Genetic evidence for complex speciation of humans and chimpanzees," by Nick Patterson et al., humans and chimpanzees may have once interbred. The evolutionary split between humans and chimpanzees is much more recent than was thought, according to a new comparison of the complete genome sequences of the two species. The data show that the split occurred no more than 6.3 million years ago, probably less than 5.4 million years ago. The speciation process appears to have been rather unusual � possibly involving an initial split followed by later hybridization before a final once-and-for-all separation.

DNA Shows Man a Descendant of Genghis Khan

By JILL LAWLESS
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 6, 2006

LONDON -- Tom Robinson had long wondered about his family tree. He never suspected its roots might lie in the Mongolian steppe.

The Florida accountant knew that his great, great-grandfather had come to the United States from England -- but beyond that his research drew a blank. So he turned to the burgeoning field of "bioarchaeology," having his DNA tested to see what it revealed about his origins.

Genghis Khan

He was in for a surprise. According to a British geneticist who pioneered the research, Robinson appears to be a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, the Mongol warrior who conquered vast tracts of Asia and Europe in the 13th century. Read more.

Genetics and Psychiatry

Mood disorders (for instance, depression) and schizophrenia have traditionally been approached as unrelated extremes or opposites on a continuum of psychiatric disorders. But now it seems the genes causing them, and the linkage disequilibrium associated with them, extend from one end of the spectrum to the other. In a report by Nick Craddock and Liz Forty in the European Journal of Human Genetics (2006) 14, 660�668, the gene for bipolar disorder has been shown to also be implemented in other disorders, while manifestation depends more than previously believed on the interaction between one's environment and genetic susceptibility. The title: "Genetics of affective (mood) disorders." This entire issue is devoted to genetics and behavioral psychology/psychiatric medicine.

Oprah a Zulu?

From The Guardian (London), February 17, 2006

G2: New roots: Wealthy African-Americans are using DNA kits to trace their roots - all the way back to Africa

By GARY YONGE

Oprah is a Zulu. Never mind that she was born and raised in Mississippi and her great grandparents hailed from no further away than Georgia and North Carolina, Ms. Winfrey, the queen of the televised confessional, is not just suggesting her lineage might stretch back thousands of years to a specific African tribe. She is asserting it as a definitive fact.

"I always wondered what it would be like if it turned out I am a South African. I feel so at home here . . . Do you know that I actually am one?" she told an audience of 3,200 in Johannesburg last year. "I went in search of my roots and had my DNA tested, and I am a Zulu."

This month in the US, Oprah has been joined by eight other African-American luminaries, including Quincy Jones and Whoopi Goldberg, in tracing their genealogy.

In reality, however, the truths this science reveals are no less selective than those you will hear from a politician.

Science can only tell you so much. Stop the genealogical wheel at an inconvenient moment and some of the world's greatest black icons could be rendered not African, but European. Muhammad Ali's great grandfather was Irish; Bob Marley's father was British.

DNA Doesn't Lie, But People May

According to most historical accounts, the Zulu nation was consolidated only after the departure of slaves from West Africa to the Americas. Moreover, there is little in the way of genetic lineage that comes close to matching a particular linguistic group such as the Zulu nation.

When Oprah had her DNA tested for the programme, the results suggested her most likely match was from the Kpelles tribe of Liberia. Indeed she was told that she could not have come from South Africa. None of this is likely to stop her claiming the Zulus as her kith and kin. "I'm crazy about the South African accent," she said. "I wish I had been born here."

Neanderthal DNA Sequenced More Fully

By Rex Dalton

From Nature vol. 441 no. 7091 p. 260ff. (April 2006)

After the mitochondrial DNA was reconstructed by German scientists about 10 years ago, Neanderthal DNA now yields to a more complete genome foray. Genetic material was sequenced from a 45,000-year-old male.


Genes Implicated
In Cancer, Human Fitness
Reported in Breakthrough

The DNA sequence and biological annotation of human chromosome 1

By S. G. Gregory et al.

From Nature 441, 315-321 (18 May 2006)

ABSTRACT:
The reference sequence for each human chromosome provides the framework for understanding genome function, variation and evolution. Here we report the finished sequence and biological annotation of human chromosome 1. Chromosome 1 is gene-dense, with 3,141 genes and 991 pseudogenes, and many coding sequences overlap. Rearrangements and mutations of chromosome 1 are prevalent in cancer and many other diseases. Patterns of sequence variation reveal signals of recent selection in specific genes that may contribute to human fitness, and also in regions where no function is evident. Fine-scale recombination occurs in hotspots of varying intensity along the sequence, and is enriched near genes. These and other studies of human biology and disease encoded within chromosome 1 are made possible with the highly accurate annotated sequence, as part of the completed set of chromosome sequences that comprise the reference human genome.