Ancestry Surprises From New Genetics Analysis Method

An anonymous reader commends a recently published study involving a new way to analyze genetic variation in human populations (full article published in PLOS Genetics): "[S]cientists from Ireland, the UK and the US analysed 2,540 genetic markers in the DNA of almost 1,000 people from around the world whose genetic material had been collected by the Human Genome Diversity Project. The results include a number of surprises... the Yakut people of northern Siberia were found to have received a significant genetic contribution from the population of the Orkney Islands, which lie off the coast of Scotland... there must have been a period of gene flow from northern Europe to east Asia. The study also shed light on the peopling of the Americas, as the results suggest that the native populations of north and south America have different origins."

Comments

The N./S. America thing has been controversial

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of people didn't want to give up on the idea that the arctic bridge was the only way people got to the Americas, when it made much more sense that some people could've traveled the ocean to settle here.

Maps of human travel on earth

[Frekko]

This story sparked my interest so I searched for a while on the internet to find some maps of what the world looked like back in the ages and where evidence of people has been found linked with DNA evidence of how people actually have moved.
I sadly came up with nothing... anyone who knows where to find anything like this?

Re:Maps of human travel on earth

[digitig]

The theory I am most familiar with is that it's to do with land distribution and early technology. Early technology was largely plant and animal based. That technology spread easily east-west because of broadly similar climate, but didn't spread well north-south because of climate changes. Eurasia provided a massive east-west area, but Africa, India, Polynesia and so on were relaively isolated in the east-west direction. That means that technology advanced faster in the north than in the south. Add in the general human tendancy of the powerful oppressing the weak and hey, presto! White (and Yellow) colonialism. No racial causes, just the luck of the draw in who was in the right place at the right time.

Re:Maps of human travel on earth

[corbettw]

I've always suspected that one of the reasons for Europe and the Middle East's preeminence through much of history was the Mediterranean Sea and the easy trade routes provided by it. The Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans all made great use of the sea in building their empires; I doubt any of them would've been half as successful without it.

Polynesians

[Bananatree3]

If people reached Easter Island, which is almost off the coast of South America, what would have stopped Polynesian explorers from traveling all the way to Chile? It seems statistically low that explorers would have been able to hit a tiny island off the coast of S.A. and not have at least had one or two exploratory parties hit the coast.

This isn't to say Polynesians were the first to South America, as Easter Island was populated around 2000 years ago while S.A. was populated many thousands of more years before that. However, it seems likely that there might have been genetic mixing between Polynesians and South American coastal tribes.

Re:Polynesians

[DerangedAlchemist]

Recently, ancient chicken DNA from South America was found to be most closely related to Polynesian chickens. I believe it was specifically chickens from Tonga, which is close to Easter Island. Previously, there was some dispute because carbon dating of the oldest chicken skeletons suggested they were a couple of hundred years older than the Spanish had arrived.
So it probably did occur something like you suggest, even if the human populations were wiped out by local tribes and show no genetic mixing.

Re:Where is this going?

[mrbluze]

What if at some point it became obvious that certain populations were (objectively) superior to others, in terms of predisposition toward diseases, etc.

The end of WWII supposedly brought an end to eugenics in Germany, but it was, even then, thriving in the English speaking world and continues to do so.

The weakness of our civilization has become a lack of any moral vigor. Pretty much every time there is protest on moral grounds it is trivialized by the media and the whole thing is treated like a sport between nay-sayers and scientists.

It's a weakness because it breeds distrust and fear in the community. if we don't come up with/maintain some kind of moral integrity in our scientific community, we will be overrun by groups who will impose an extreme opposite on us. And yeah, you're right, someone will come up with a logical but crazy conclusion and we'll have another wave of white-coat slaughter happening.

Re:But other studies have shown different results.

[aibob]

Remember that there is a difference between using mitochondrial DNA (the studies you cited) and autosomal DNA (this study). With mitochondrial DNA, the only information that you get is along the maternal line, so you're missing a lot of the data. Looking back 20 generations, for example, you're only looking at one ancestor out of about a million. It would be possible for two groups to come over but only one be reflected in the maternal line.

Re:RTFA

[HadouKen24]

You'd be wrong there.

Depends on what period of history and what area you're talking about, actually.

There's evidence of Jewish presence in China as early as the 7th century. There were reports in the 9th century of Christian, Muslims, and Jews killed in a massacre in the 9th century. And Marco Polo reported encountering Jews in China in the 13th century. They lived mostly in Kaifeng, where a synagogue was built in the 11th century.

However, it wasn't until the 15th century that Jews in China had much recognition by the local government. In 1421, Jews were finally allowed to take the civil service test. The population in Kaifeng was discovered by European Christians in the 17th century, who used their version of the Torah to crosscheck it against the versions being used in Europe. They were identical.

So... yeah. Not many Jews, but there are signs dating back to the 7th century that Jews were present.


'Course, that's not nearly early enough to match up with Mormon scripture.

Re:Where is this going?

[rrohbeck]

Yes, Eugenics has a bad rap because of the way it used to be done forcibly in Nazi Germany, the US and other places.
But what's wrong with it if it's done in an ethically responsible way? [Prospective] parents have access to genetic testing/counseling if there's known risks like hereditary diseases, and embryos can be tested and aborted if they have severe [genetic] defects. If a couple has significant genetic defects they can choose to adopt. That's eugenics, pure and simple. What's wrong with that?
And don't start with a slippery slope argument. It's up to legislation to set the proper limits and it's up to society to apply scientific results in the proper way. We are able to read the genome today, and it's getting cheaper and cheaper. Applied properly, this can be very beneficial. Applied badly, see Gattaca.

Nations of Europe

[eggspurt]

The movies they attach are not very good.

I have some Python source code for doing similar things with the case of European nations on http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2007/06/animated_mds_co.html (there is an animated GIF there).

A bit more discussion about my methodology is at http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2007/06/nations_of_euro.html

Re:silly

[cheesybagel]

You are forgetting gunpowder guns, steel armor, and horses. Those improved the chances significantly. The fact that at least in Central America the natives were a bunch of bickering and warring tribes helped as well. Try reading about how Cortes invaded Tenochtitlan. If I was getting my place raided and my people enslaved to provide for live sacrifices, I would have joined the Spanish too. Besides, they may have got smallpox, but we got gonorrhea.