US Veterans Administration seeks 1 million DNA samples

From The Baltimore Sun:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-million-veteran-program-20120204,0,1502812.story

By Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun

4:23 p.m. EST, February 5, 2012

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is looking for a few good men and women to volunteer for a battle it's waging at home — against disease.

Actually, more than a few are needed. Officials overseeing health care for the nation's veterans are undertaking what may be the largest effort of its kind in the nation, to collect medical records and blood samples from a million former service members for a bank of genetic information.


Vets who would like to volunteer, can go to http://www.research.va.gov/mvp/ for more information or call 866-441-6075.

FTDNA now accepting transfer of 23andme v3 Relative Finder results

The following notice appears on the Products page at http://www.ftdna.com/products.aspx :

This option is available for men or women who have Relative Finder results from a third party company that used the Illumina OmniExpress Plus Genotyping BeadChip (this includes tests performed by 23andMe). You may use this option to upload your results to the Family Tree DNA database. This product will provide you with a Family Tree DNA personal page and various features.
ATTENTION: If you are already a Family Tree DNA customer, please log into your personal account to transfer your third party results and avoid creating a duplicate record.
Results file with less than 700,000 SNPs (i.e. 23andMe's V2):

• Is NOT compatible with our Family Finder product. In order to verify the compatibility, you will have to upload your file into our system. Please read our refund policy here, before you proceed and find your record incompatible.
• Includes a one-time use coupon code to purchase our Family Finder product for an additional $109 plus shipping.

Results file with more than 900,000 SNPs (i.e. 23andMe's V3):

• Is compatible with our Family Finder product.
• Includes matches related within about the last 5 generations and predicted relationship ranges.*
• Provides percentages of your ancestral make-up (Native-American, Middle Eastern (including Jewish), African, West and East European).
• Recommended for genealogists.
• Great for confirming close relationships regardless of gender.
• Please note, uploaded files are batch processed once a week. You will be notified by e-mail when your file has been processed.

*You will be matched with others who have also taken the Family Finder test. However, if you come from an under-represented population, it is possible that you will not find matches right away. Your matches largely depend on how your DNA compares to our database. As our database is constantly growing, we will send you e-mail notifications about any new matches.
IMPORTANT: Your results from Family Tree DNA compared to another company's results will be similar, however, they WILL NOT be exact. Due to Family Tree DNA's proprietary algorithm your matches, centimorgan totals, and centimorgan length will vary.

23andMe© is a copyrighted trademark of 23andMe, Inc©. Family Tree DNA is not affiliated with 23andMe© in any way.

Am J Hum Genet. 2012 Jan 24. [Epub ahead of print]

Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosome Variation Provides Evidence for a Recent Common Ancestry between Native Americans and Indigenous Altaians.

Dulik MC, Zhadanov SI, Osipova LP, Askapuli A, Gau L, Gokcumen O, Rubinstein S, Schurr TG.

Source

Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6398, USA.

Abstract

The Altai region of southern Siberia has played a critical role in the peopling of northern Asia as an entry point into Siberia and a possible homeland for ancestral Native Americans. It has an old and rich history because humans have inhabited this area since the Paleolithic. Today, the Altai region is home to numerous Turkic-speaking ethnic groups, which have been divided into northern and southern clusters based on linguistic, cultural, and anthropological traits. To untangle Altaian genetic histories, we analyzed mtDNA and Y chromosome variation in northern and southern Altaian populations. All mtDNAs were assayed by PCR-RFLP analysis and control region sequencing, and the nonrecombining portion of the Y chromosome was scored for more than 100 biallelic markers and 17 Y-STRs. Based on these data, we noted differences in the origin and population history of Altaian ethnic groups, with northern Altaians appearing more like Yeniseian, Ugric, and Samoyedic speakers to the north, and southern Altaians having greater affinities to other Turkic speaking populations of southern Siberia and Central Asia. Moreover, high-resolution analysis of Y chromosome haplogroup Q has allowed us to reshape the phylogeny of this branch, making connections between populations of the New World and Old World more apparent and demonstrating that southern Altaians and Native Americans share a recent common ancestor. These results greatly enhance our understanding of the peopling of Siberia and the Americas.*

*Emphasis added by SCP.

Copyright © 2012 The American Society of Human Genetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PMID:

22281367

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 

 

 

FTDNA Extend Holiday Sale through 7 Jan 2012

Products and Promotions

Holiday Promotion extended to January 7, 2012

Due to popular demand Family Tree DNA extended its Holiday Promotion, which encompasses the widest rage of tests, from new kits to upgrades. Here are the details of the promotion:

New Kits	Current Group Price	SALE PRICE
Y-DNA 37	$149	$119
Y-DNA 67	$239	$199
mtFullSequence	$299	$239
SuperDNA (Y-DNA67 and FMS)	$518	$438
Family Finder	$289	$199
Family Finder + mtPlus	$438	$318
Family Finder + FMS	$559	$439
Family Finder+ Y-DNA37	$438	$318
Comprehensive (FF + FMS + Y-67)	$797	$627
Upgrades
12-25 Marker	$49	$35
12-37 Marker	$99	$69
12-67 Marker	$189	$148
25-37 Marker	$49	$35
25-67 Marker	$148	$114
37-67 Marker	$99	$79
Family Finder	$289	$199
mtHVR1toMega	$269	$229
mtHVR2toMega	$239	$209

Orders must be placed and paid for by January 7, 2012 to receive this offer.
IMPORTANT: This promotion will not be extended beyond January 7, 2012.
Order An Upgrade
Order A New Kit

National Geographic Explorer: How to build an Ancient Man

CeCe Moore, at Your Genetic Genealogist, has a post on the recent National Geographic Explorer program on the reconstruction of the genetics of a Saqqaq male from Greenland, "How to Build an Ancient Man" This is a followup to the scientific article abstracted here: Gilbert et al., "Paleo-Eskimo mtDNA Genome Reveals Matrilineal Discontinuity in Greenland", Science 27 June 2008: 1787-1789. DOI:10.1126/science.1159750 . The article implies multiple entries into the Americas from Asia.

See the facial reconstruction of Inuq an ancient Saqqaq male from Greenland.

X Chromosome matches from 23andme

This chart is of my X Chromosome matches from Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder at 23andMe. The length of the line corresponds to the length of the match on the X chromosome. Because I am a male, I got one X chromosome from my mother.  She got an amalgam of the X chromosomes from her father and mother. I can only verify my relationship to three of the people on this chart.

SKD is my multiple 1st cousin and the relationship is through our mothers, who were sisters.  My 1st cousin and I share 6 of 8 great grandparents. We match at two locations on the X: 1-12, and 91-140.

LB and CF are 3rd cousins 1 remove and 2 removes, a mother and daughter. My 1st cousin and I share 4 of 16 GGreat grandparents with them, Swain, Ball, Kidd, and Stephens.  However, my 1st cousin does not match them or me at these locations on the X chromosome, but does match them on other chromosomes as I also do.

With HP, the link may be through the Hays/Hayes family of Overton and Fentress Co., Tennessee. HPs X line is from the same area. The mother of Maliza Stephens was Susan Hayes, and she and her husband, Zorababel Stephens, lived in Overton/Fentress Co., TN. This would subsume the links to LB and CF.

With three others, GA, JO, and CO, a mother and two of her sons, the relationship is unknown. My 1st cousin does share this match with them. We thought the relationship was on the Strunk/Strunck line, but that is not a direct line for them.

It is important to remember that a different cutoff is used for calling a match on the X chromosome between males, a male and a female, and between females:

Males: 200 SNPs, 1cM;
Male to Female: 600 SNPs, 6cM;
Female to Female: 1200 SNPs, 6cM.

This probably explains some match I have with females which do not show as a match for my female 1st cousin.

I am hoping to get some more 1st cousin matches to help to isolate matches to particular lines.

Here is a link to my pedigree charts:
Steven C Perkins 13 Generation Pedigree Charts 

FTDNA 7th Genetic Genealogy Conference

Family Tree DNA's 7th Genetic Genealogy Conference

The 7th Genetic Genealogy Conference for Family Tree DNA Group Administrators November 5-6, 2011
To be held at the Sheraton North Houston 15700 John F. Kennedy Boulevard Houston, TX 77032 (281) 442-5100
Book a Room at the Sheraton North Houston at a Discount
*The Sheraton website has a known issue with the Chrome browser. To visit their site please try another browser.

Featured Speakers

• Doron Behar, PhD
• Michael Hammer, PhD
• Steve Morse, author of the website "One Step Pages"
• Spencer Wells, PhD

X chromosome inheritance at 23andMe through Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder

The link above goes to a page that has charts for determining which ancestors contributed to your X chromosome. For a male, only his mother contributes an X chromosome. For a female both her mother and her father contribute X chromosomes. Parts of those chromosomes will be inactivated but the X can still be used for genealogical purposes.

I have 24 people who match me on the X chromosome at 23andMe through Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder. Neither FTDNA nor SMGF have published their X chromosome databases. GEDMATCH allows FTDNA customers to match their X chromosomes to other GEDMATCH participants. I haven't heard of anyone else having as many matches, but I am sure there must be someone who does. At this time I can only confirm three of the matches with one 1st cousin and with a 3rd cousin once removed and her daughter. I share a surname in the 1600s in Germany with a mother and her two sons. But since that surname is not contributing to the X chromosome before 1830, the assumption is that there is a closer link than that surname.

There are 5 and 6 generation charts for both males and females on the page. Below are the people, with their ancestor chart number, who would be on my 6 Generation Chart on the linked page with the percentage of X chromosome contribution expected from each.

1, myself
-------------
2 Denval Perkins 0%
3 Mary Ruth Ball 100%
------------
6 George Matt Ball 50%
7 Rosa Genetta Swain 50%
------------
12 Peter Coleman Ball 0%
13 Frances Strunk 50%
14 Thomas J Swain 25%
15 Elizabeth Kidd 25%
------------
26 Manoah Strunk 25%
27 Susana Cortina Davis 25%
28 Jesse D. Swain 0%
29 Elizabeth Ball 25%
30 John Kidd 12.5%
31 Maliza Stephens 12.5%
-------------
52 Abraham Strunk 0%
53 Abigail Pennington 25%
54 John Davis 12.5%
55 Frances Creekmore 12.5%
58 William Ball 12.5%
59 Charlotte May 12.5%
60 Elias Kidd 0%
61 Margaret Bagley 12.5%
62 Zorababel Stephens 6.25%
63 Susan Hayes 6.25%

Percentages are averages and usually can range from 0-100.

Having this chart filled out based on your sex can assist in identifying your X chromosome matches.

23andMe DNA test discount certificate: $50.00 off until 9 August 2011

To use this coupon, visit our online store and add an order to your cart. Click "I have a discount code" and enter the code below.
$50 Off

Coupon code: YG7XDH

Share with your friends!

(Valid for new customers only)

This works with either the $99 plus 12 months at $9 subscription, or with the $399 service without a subscription.

Comparison of 23andme Relative Finder, Ancestry Finder and FTDNA Family Finder results

I'll repeat a post I made at 23andme on comparing success rates at both:

======================================

Colonial American ancestry: Jamestown, Boston, Cambridge, Hartford, New Haven Colony, New Amsterdam, New Sweden, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Then spread out to North Carolina, South Carolina, both pre-Rev War; then Tennessee and Kentucky, post-Rev War.

• at 23andme I have 1050 RF matches and have confirmed 7 of those.
• at FTDNA I have 175 FF matches and have confirmed 10 of those.
• Two of my confirmed matches have tested both 23andme RF and FTDNA FF.
• I have 20 separate X Chromosome matches in RF and AF. That counts repeated people only once.
• I have no immediate matches at FTDNA. I have 54 close matches and 121 speculative matches. My closest confirmed matches are two 4th cousins.
• I have two known 1st cousins at 23andme and two unresponsive 2nd cousins. My closest confirmed match at 23andme is with a 3rd cousin once removed and her daughter.

=======================

If you haven't done any tests I recommend starting at 23andme and then, when FTDNA opens the program, transferring your results to FTDNA. That way you get genealogical matches from both companies, you get mtDNA haplogroup and if a male, Y DNA haplogroup, and X chromosome matches at 23andme plus health info.

At FTDNA you get genealogy matches and when they get it ready, X chromosome matches. You have to pay separately for the Y DNA haplotype and haplogroup and the same for mtDNA. So from a cost perspective it is lower cost to start at 23andme and transfer to FTDNA UNLESS you also want detailed Y DNA /mtDNA readings.