Dusk. You are waiting for Carol who is standing in long line at The
Honeybaked Ham Company and Cafe. It is a constant drizzle but she is now inside
(the line stretches twenty or so feet outside). It took you a little time to
find a parking spot – people are driving in circles looking for an opening. You
left Kim and Paul’s about noon having had a late breakfast near Polaris.
Sunday,
Kim invited Gayle and Mary Lou over for a Xmas dinner – very successfully
concluded with her homemade apple pie. She had meatloaf (Grandma Schick’s
recipe) and it was excellent, just like Carol and Grandma made it as well as
Carol’s mother Jean Cook Hammond. (Grandma had shared her secret recipes with
Jean’s mother back in the 1920’s or thereabouts.)
Yesterday,
Monday, afternoon you saw Aunt Patsy, Ralph P., your brother-in-law who fell
flat in the doctor’s office and broke several ribs, both arms and some fingers
and his nose; and saw Cathy and Tod; you felt it very productive to the
Christmas season. – Amorella
1702 hours. We had fun with the boys as well as
with Kim and Paul. It was a very pleasant visit. I’m glad we stayed until today.
Paul and I did send away for DNA kits from National Geographic ‘s Geno program
directed by a very distant cousin of mine named Spencer Wells. (1705)
I have two article below. The
first is from Wikipedia and the second, “The Independent”.
** **
The Genographic Project
The Genographic Project, launched on 13 April 2005 by the National Geographic Society
and IBM, is a multi-year genetic anthropology study that aims to map historical
human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples from hundreds
of thousands of people from around the world.[1]
Overview
Field
researchers at 11 regional centers around the world collect DNA samples from
indigenous populations. The project also sells self-testing kits: for US$100
(with the advent of Phase II "Geno2.0" testing, the price has been
increased to US$199.95 for a more comprehensive test). Anyone in the world can
order a kit with which a mouth scraping (buccal swab) is obtained and analyzed,
and the DNA information is placed on an Internet-accessible database. In the
first phase of the project, genetic markers on mitochondrial DNA (HVR1) and
Y-chromosomes (12 microsatellite markers and haplogroup-defining SNPs) were
used to trace the participant's distant ancestry, and each customer was
provided with their genetic history via a secure website. With the new Geno 2.0
test, nearly 150,000 genetic markers from across the entire genome are
examined, with the results delivered via an updated website. As of 2014 some
700,000 people have contributed their DNA for analysis. This element of success
of the project has resulted in a broader interest in direct-to-consumer genetic
testing.
The
Genographic Project is undertaking widespread consultation with indigenous
groups from around the world. Genographic Project public participation kits are
processed by Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) in Houston, Texas.
The
project is a privately funded, not-for-profit collaboration between the
National Geographic Society, IBM and the Waitt Foundation. Part of the proceeds
from the sale of self-testing kits support the Genographic Project's ongoing
DNA collection,[2] but the majority are used for a Legacy Fund to be spent on
cultural preservation projects nominated by indigenous communities.
In Fall
2012, The Genographic Project announced the completion of a new genotyping
array, dedicated to Genetic Anthropology, called the GenoChip. GenoChip is
specifically designed for anthropological testing and includes SNPs from
autosomal DNA, X-chromosome DNA, Y-chromosome DNA and mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA). The design of the new chip was a collaborative effort between Dr. Eran
Elhaik of Johns Hopkins, Spencer Wells of National Geographic, Family Tree DNA,
and Illumina.
Geno 2.0
test
The Admixture test developed by
Wells and Elhaik classifies individuals by assessing their proportions of
genomic ancestry related to nine ancestral regions: Northeast Asian, Mediterranean,
Southern African, Southwest Asian, Oceanian, Southeast Asian, Northern
European, Sub-Saharan African and Native American.[4]
Characteristics of 43 reference populations have been developed, each made up
of distinct blends of these nine regions (results < 2% are not reported by
Geno 2.0).
Use of
genetic markers
The
Genographic Project relies on the identification of genetic markers. Most human
DNA is a shuffled combination of genetic material passed down the generations.
There are, however, parts of the human genome that pass unshuffled from parent
to child. These segments of DNA are only changed by occasional mutations—random
spelling mistakes in the genetic code. When these spelling mistakes are passed
down to succeeding generations, they become markers of descent.
Different
populations have different genetic markers, and by following them through the
generations scientists are able to identify the different branches of the human
tree, all the way back to their common African root. Indigenous populations
provide geographical and cultural context to the genetic markers in their DNA.
These clues can help recreate past migration patterns.
Citizen
involvement
Since
2005 Genographic has used volunteers (in fieldwork & providing DNA samples)
and citizen science projects. Such outreach for public participation in
research has been encouraged by organizations such as International Society of
Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG), which is seeking to promote benefits from scientific
research. This includes supporting, organization and dissemination of personal
DNA (genetic) testing.
ISOGG –
the International Society of Genetic Geneaology supports citizen participation
in genetic research, and believes such volunteers have provided valuable
information and research to the professional scientific community.
In a
2013 speech to the Southern California Genealogical Society, Spencer Wells,
Director of the Genographic Project, discussed its encouragement of citizen
scientists:
Since 2005, the Genographic
Project has used the latest genetic technology to expand our knowledge of the
human story, and its pioneering use of DNA testing to engage and involve the
public in the research effort has helped to create a new breed of "citizen
scientist.” Geno 2.0 expands the scope for citizen science, harnessing the
power of the crowd to discover new details of human population history.
From – Wikipedia
** **
** **
National Geographic's Genographic
Project is helping people to trace their family tree back 60,000 years to the
Neanderthals
GABRIELLE JONAS
Wednesday 14 May 2014
I have
just received results of a test that traced back my genome 67,000 years. The
cutting edge test has jangled my identity, serving me breath-taking personal
information on a petri-dish platter. The test covers "deep ancestry",
and though it just takes a few seconds to conduct the cheek swab, the results
take months, as a technology called single nucleotide polymorphism uses arrays
on computer chips to probe for 150,000 different mutations.
These
mutations are little mistakes that happen in the genetic story, passed down
over thousands of years until entire populations of one area carry the same
mistakes, or markers, in their genome.
The
markers of one group are different from the mistakes of another group and
geneticists can follow these "breadcrumbs", as National Geographic's
Genographic Project director Spencer Wells puts it, across great swaths, not
only of time, but of place, as well.
Finding
out that two per cent of my genome is African was exciting. It's one thing to
know intellectually that the human race originated in Africa; it's quite
another to learn that the African legacy is expressed in my very own genome.
Now it's not just that all humans originated in Africa – it's me that
originated there. What of my personality, mind and temperament is encoded in my
African genes? Although the Genographic Project is quick to point out that
these results aren't about race, it does turn the notion on its topsy-turvy
head. The Project should consider giving people like Nevada rancher Cliven
Bundy a kit, even sparing them the $200 (£120) fee. It would be great to see
white supremacists who had received their results reel on the chat groups.
Unfortunately,
that group is unlikely to believe the results of a genetics test.
But there
was a result even more interesting than my African heritage. About 1.1 per cent
of my genome is Neanderthal. The Swedish biologist Svante Pääbo, who first
discovered in 2010 that the human genome contains Neanderthal genome, was so
shaken by the results that he repeated the tests many times until the truth
couldn't be denied: modern humans who migrated from Africa 60,000 years ago
must have mated with the Neanderthals who populated south-western Europe.
And the
one to four percentage of the Neanderthal genes (the Africans who never left
their continent have no Neanderthal DNA) in Europeans and Asians does not come
from the rare hook-up. Mating between the two human species occurred on a
regular basis, over the thousands of years they cohabitated.
That's not
quite as icky as it sounds. Anthropologists are revisiting the old
archaeological evidence and drawing a more advanced profile of Neanderthals
than they had when they considered them not too far above the apes. In
unravelling the Neanderthal genome, Dr Pääbo found one of the genes for
language, and Robert G Franciscus, a paleoanthropologist from the University of
Iowa, did a 3D CT-based reconstruction of Neanderthal vocal tract anatomy, to
gain a sense of how the males would have sounded when they talked (with
surprisingly shrill, high voices for such macho-looking men). It now appears
that the Neanderthals took care of their handicapped, buried their dead with
rudimentary ritual and decorated themselves with body paint, manufactured pitch
to hold their spear points to their spear shafts and used a sophisticated
method to engineer tools.
But even
with all these laudable attributes, Neanderthal culture paled compared to that
of modern humans who came out of Africa. Even with their big brains, the
Neanderthals, anthropologists believe, suffered from a lack of imagination.
Their minimalist culture remained mind-numbingly stagnant for most of the
170,000 years they inhabited Europe. It received a boost from their interaction
with the Africans. And then they disappeared.
The
disappearance of Neanderthals has mystified anthropologists. They had
postulated that the modern humans killed them off or that climate change
thinned out the dense forests to open plains where they were ill-accustomed to
hunt. But the recent evidence of their interbreeding with humans indicates they
just eventually got absorbed into the modern human population. Where did they
disappear to? They disappeared within us.
I'm also – according to the results
of my Geno kit – 0.1 Denisovan. That's a brand-new species of archaic humans
discovered in 2008 in a cave in southern Siberia in the form of the
40,000-year-old little finger of a young girl. Dr Pääbo has extracted nuclear
DNA out of it which suggests the girl had brown hair, eyes and skin. The
Denisovan genome has me, to my surprise, related to present-day east Asians.
In the
excitement of learning about my deep ancestry, though, lurked a fear: despite
the Genographic Project's guarantee of confidentiality, it's disconcerting to
have my genetic information in the hands of some magazine. (The Genographic
Project is National Geographic's project.) Let's put it this way: I hope that
there's at least one Denisovian on the National Geographic board of directors.
If not, next time I fill out a website survey, I won't hit "No
Thanks" next to the offer of the National Geographic subscription. For
added assurance, I'll even order National Geographic 's Scottish Thistle
walking stick. And if that's not good enough, there's always the Expedition
Field Jacket. All I ask is that when National Geographic sells its mailing
lists, it doesn't accidentally sell my full genetic profile along with it.
I should
really be more worried about Google. To protect my privacy, I'm not mentioning
my genetic results in Gmail. I'm loath to see what personalised ads appear
after I type, "LOL, I'm a Neanderthal!" or "It's awesome! I'm a
Denisovian!"
But
despite the fun of being able to tell family members that I knew all along they
were Neanderthals, the legacy of that species is not a LOL matter. We owe them
a tremendous debt of gratitude for their immune systems, part of which now
comprise our own. This hardy group that withstood the Ice Age developed an
immune system that was as robust as their broad, squat, muscular bodies and it
was interbreeding with them for 30,000 to 50,000 years that bolstered the
Africans' immune system to withstand the onslaught of the diseases of northern
climates.
Along with
my genetic results, the Genome Project gave me a map that traces my ancestors'
journeys. My L3 ancestors were the first modern humans to have left Africa. My
original mother, L3, who is also the mother of all women outside of Africa,
lived on the river Bor on the Nile River in South Sudan. She is the ur-mother,
a so-called mitochondrial Eve. This is extraordinary to ponder: that one woman
was the ancestor of billions of people. One can't help but wonder, would she be
proud?
L3's
descendants gave rise to two groups, with one of them being my ancestors'
Haplogroup N, which migrated north from the South Sudan, following the Nile
basin and leaving the African continent across the Sinai Peninsula, in what is
present-day Egypt. Their descendants first lived in the eastern Mediterranean
region and western Asia, where they had families with Neanderthals. This is
where my ancestors picked up the Neanderthal DNA that is showing up in my
genome.
Jumping
ahead to my lineage called haplogroup pre-HV: while some descendants of pre-HV
moved out across Central Asia, the Indus Valley, and even back into Africa, my
ancestors remained in the Middle East, forming a new group called haplogroup
HV. To my initial disappointment, about 15,000 years separates my ancestors in
the region where Abraham would have been when he founded Judaism. By the time
he was there, my ancestors of haplogroup N were long gone, having followed
enormous herds of migrating game into the uninhabited territories west to
populate Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean, and to Central Asia and the
Indus Valley of Pakistan and India.
My
physical ancestors aren't my spiritual ancestors. The timing suggests that my
ancestors converted to Judaism after they were already in Europe or Asia,
probably via marriage to someone who came from the Middle East in a later
migration. Learning my genetic story has not just given me a new racial
identity, but handed me a major soul shift on its petri-dish platter, as well.
It's
humbling to think of all the people wandering so far over such imposing
topographies in such difficult climates towards their future – towards my
present. The vision of long treks out of Africa, through Egypt, across to
Caanan and then up to Europe staggers the mind. My imagination bumps up
against; is stymied by the incredibly long passage of time, the greatness of
territories traversed, the thousands of never-known people it took to reach the
enormous, varied, interrelated world population.
I simply
can't imagine it. But perhaps that's the Neanderthal in me.
A version of this article appeared
in 'Newsweek'
From - http://www.independentDOTco.uk/news/science/national-geographics-genographic-project-is-helping-people-to-trace-their-family-tree-back-60000-years-to-the-neanderthals-9372476.html
** **
1917 hours. We are about to have supper and watch “The Mentalist” from
Sunday night.
2214 hours. We watched “The Mentalist” and “CSI” from
Sunday night as well as NBC News. Carol is reading the Sunday paper and I am
ready for bed.
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