Read reviews of science articles, new research and news reports on ancestry testing, ancient DNA and popular genetics
Donald N. Yates
submitted August 31, 2009
ABSTRACT. A sample of 52 individuals who purchased mitochondrial DNA testing to determine their female lineage was assembled after the fact from the customer files of DNA Consultants. All claim matrilineal descent from a Native American woman, usually named as Cherokee.
In the last blog post, we responded to the call of Nature (the journal, that is) in “Genetics without Borders.” In this, we examine the second of three editorials in this week’s issue concerning regulation of DNA testing companies: “Putting DNA to the Test.”
That’s the import of a trio of opinions in this week’s Nature magazine. One of them, “Genetics without Borders,” criticizes a “UK government scheme to establish nationality through DNA testing [as] scientifically flawed, ethically dubious and potentially damaging to science.”
Local Hunter-Gatherers Obstruct Incoming Farmers, Again
In the last post, we saw that there was discontinuity in the genetic record between medieval and contemporary Tuscans. Contradictions keep popping up whenever geneticists seek to show continuity in human populations.
Newberry Family DNA Project
A Guest Posting by Sue Simonich
For nearly four centuries, the Newberry legacy has been studied by historians and genealogists. American descendants have pondered ancient progenitors from Normandy and England, to America and back.
In a recent research article published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, a team headed by Silvia Guimaraes of the University of Florence documents how the Tuscans of the Middle Ages preserved Etruscan bloodlines while the contemporary inhabitants of the Italian state of Tuscany seem to have little or no connection with those mysterious antecedents from the Bronze Age.
