Posted on 01/02/2007 9:54:46 PM PST by blam
Curious about your genealogical origins? UA can help trace them
By Dan Sorenson
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.26.2006
Human history is unfolding one cheek swab at a time in a cluttered, windowless laboratory deep in the University of Arizona's Biological Sciences West Building.
Although geneticists and anthropologists long ago determined that we all have origins in Africa, there is much to be learned from our DNA about where we went from there.
A cast of about 30 undergraduate UA biology students, technicians and the lab manager deftly dance around one another in the cramped space, like waiters and chefs in a busy kitchen, processing the DNA to do just that ¡ª for participants in National Geographic Society's Genographic Project.
After extracting DNA from participants' samples and putting it into a usable form it is analyzed, using special software. The software looks for mutations, essentially "spelling errors" in DNA. These markers are repeated ¡ª along with others picked up later ¡ª in descendants' DNA, creating a trail.
For that reason, "deep time is easier to figure than recent," says project lead Matt Kaplan.
The lab, part of the UA Arizona Research Laboratories' Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory, has already processed more than 211,000 DNA samples for people who want to know whence they came. It's a gene research factory, a "high-throughput genomics operation," in genetic jargon.
Looked at another way, "It's, basically, a dating service for genealogists," says Kaplan. He's quick to point out that genealogy researchers only get access to data from participants who agree to release their information.
But, he says, many people do because it opens them up to getting even more information about their pasts as genealogists often connect their genetic information with others and create a more complete past.
Better yet, the "resolution" ¡ª the detail ¡ª of DNA-derived histories is increasing all the time as more people put their information into genealogical databases, says Kaplan.
Technological advances also make the information more telling. Kaplan says developments in genomics outstrip nearly every other branch of science.
"I have a friend, a researcher in the Netherlands, getting DNA from ice core samples from 10,000-year-old wooly mammoths. One year ago," admits Kaplan, "I would have said, 'Bullshit!' "
Stranger still, he says, the DNA didn't come from wooly mammoth tissue; it came from urine in the ice core. What this and other developments that increase the ability of researchers to retrieve DNA mean is that there will be more information to put into databases that can be linked to tell history ¡ª whether about wooly mammoths or humans.
Kaplan, a "lizard malaria guy," in terms of his academic passions, didn't think he would be interested in human origins.
"I didn't think I'd care at all," says Kaplan. Not so. Since working on the Genographic Project, Kaplan says he has looked into his own past, finding that he came from Eastern European Jewish roots and routes.
It was something much more than that for Arlynn Bottomley, a 54-year-old grandmother of two and mother of six who was born at St. Mary's Hospital in 1952 and adopted.
Bottomley says she went to a "loving home" but, even so, "there was always a sense of loss, of incompleteness, of not knowing anything about my family background. An uncle once told me I 'didn't count' ¡ because I was adopted."
She had tried, but learned nothing of her birth parents' or lineage because her records are sealed under Arizona law.
So, when she heard about the Genographic Project, she signed up.
"The Genographic Project offered me a chance to know a little about my background, even though that background stretches back into the mists of prehistory and doesn't include the recent past."
She said the project gave her a "tenuous identity" but at least "made me feel I didn't just land here from outer space."
Bottomley, who now lives in California, says the project report on her maternal (mitochondrial) DNA revealed that she had a maternal ancestor who "150,000 years ago trod the African plains; 50,000 years ago my maternal ancestors migrated to Turkey, and eventually concentrated in the Caucasus, Russia and regions of the Baltic Sea. They were among the first Neolithic farmers. It's not quite the same as knowing your family background, but it's something."
It's hard to find a square foot of open space on the lab's long rows of countertop.
Robots hum and whir, extracting DNA from cheek swab samples sent in by people who buy the Genographic Project Participation Kit ($99.95).
Next month the lab is scheduled to move into the UA BIO5 Institute's new Thomas W. Keating Bioresearch Building.
Kaplan says the UA's involvement grew out of its earlier work on Family Tree DNA dot com ¡ª www.FamilyTreeDNA .com ¡ª a public genealogy project that predates National Geographic's project.
He says the funniest moment came several years ago after geneticists connected with the earlier project published a paper in a prestigious scientific journal that said Jews and Arabs were genetically indistinguishable.
Kaplan says "Saturday Night Live's" spoof news segment, "Update," reported the published findings and followed it with a deadpan related development that fighting in the Mideast had tripled following the announcement.
Tucsonan Doug Loy still has hope that the Genographic Project and genomics work in general may open people's eyes, make them question bigotry and xenophobia. "I think it is absolutely fantastic," says Loy, a UA associate professor of materials science engineering and chemistry. He has nothing to do with the project or DNA research, but says he was interested in learning about his past.
"There were always these familial myths about different histories, or background. I've heard many families say that they were part Cherokee."
Loy says if all the people in this country who claim to have Cherokee blood do, "There must be 100 million Cherokees."
In the case of his own family, he says there was also a belief that there was some "Black Irish," Moorish, blood in the past. He found that amusing because that branch of the family probably wasn't terribly enamored of having American Indian or African-American roots, yet they persisted in repeating this "dark secret" as gospel.
So, Loy bought a Genographic Project kit and learned that the family myths were "absolute rubbish." Like all others, if you go back far enough, there were African roots. He learned one of his paternal ancestors left what is now Kenya around 30,000 to 80,000 years ago, crossed Asia Minor, headed east to Kazakh-stan, north to the Urals and then into Europe.
"That was a surprise," Loy says of the indirect route. "I think it was a blast. I've talked quite a few people into doing it," says Loy.
Tucsonan Chris Asher, who was raised in Switzerland, says her Genographic Project report confirmed some hunches she had about her ancestors, but couldn't prove.
She suspected she had some ties to the Middle East, particularly Israel, and Italy. "I did archaeology in the Middle East, about 20 years ago," says Asher. "And every time I hit certain towns, like Jerusalem, you feel like you belong. And another place is Italy. I can go to Rome and feel at home. Don't ask me."
But, when she got her report she learned that she had ancestors who lived, or passed through, those areas. "A million dollars couldn't pay for the enjoyment I got out of it," Asher said of the Genographic Project report. "I'm in touch with a lot of people, way back relatives in Australia, in Scotland. "It's history." Her history.
¡ñ Contact reporter Dan Sorenson at 573-4185 or dsorenson@azstarnet.com.
GGG Ping.
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The Genographic Project (Have Your DNA Checked, Find Your Roots)
I run into this a lot too - almost certainly BS in most cases. I can't figure out why people want to be Cherokees, particularly, though.
How funny! We were always told that a great-great grandmother, or was it great-great-great?, was Cherokee. My husband just informed me that there is Cherokee blood on his side as well. LOL
Once the Feds have your guns, they go for your DNA and heritage.
Somewhere, a scientist is laughing like Frankenstein.
Hilarious! One would think they were the ONLY tribe in the Americas. I always get a kick when someone says "I have Cherokee blood"
Same here. We must be one of the 100 million Cherokees, lol.
Actually I think I just figured it out...
Not sure where but I've seen figures that up to 25% of "white" southerners have at least one black ancestor within the last 400 years...
I have a feeling the whole Cherokee thing may be some sort of more socially-acceptable substitution/coverup for that, if swarthier children showed up.
Could have something there. I've read that the Blacks In NA have about 25% Caucasian blood too.
So I said: "Don't tell me. They're all part Cherokee." ('cuz I've heard that a bunch, too.)
And he said: "YEAH!"Now, whenever he says some smart-assed comment to me, I tell him he can't talk to me like that, because we're blood brothers.
I'm 1/2785th Cherokee!
Just like EVERY german shepard is part wolf.
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Some Northerners too; I have an ancestor in Rhode Island who was listed as "colored" on the 1774 Census. He was probably an illegitimate son of one of the scions of the Brown family (as in Brown University), who were slave traders.
I did this a year ago, the results were very neat and confirmed my expectations. The whole endeavor was pretty fun and educational.
i believe the average for all "white" americans with some black blood is estimated to be 30%, conservatively.
i believe the percentage of "white" americans with some black blood is estimated at 30%, conservatively.
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