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Many
people spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours
tracking their origins through historical records or
verbal accounts. This
is an expensive and time consuming method that may or may
not be accurate. With the human genome finally sequenced
and recent advances is DNA technology using Single Nucleotide
Polymorphisms (SNP) a new type of genetic test called BioGeographical
Ancestry (BGA) can be generated by analyzing your DNA. In
the human populations, there are some individuals of
relatively pure BioGeographical Ancestry (BGA), such
as sub-Saharan Africans from Nigeria, Europeans from
Northern Europe, East Asians from Northern China and
Native Americans from isolated regions of Southern Mexico.
In other places, such as the United States, there are
recently (in evolutionary time) admixed (admixture is
the blending of two or more races within individuals)
peoples such as African Americans (a blend of African
and European BGA) and Hispanics (a blend of Native American
and European BGA). Of course there are more than just
four continental population groups, and a large fraction
of the world population is admixed to a greater or lesser
degree.
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Ancestry
Testing |
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Option
#1 |
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SNP
Ancestry Testing |
$249.00 |
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Option
#2 |
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SNP
Ancestry Testing
DNA
Archiving |
$259.00 |
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Option
#3 |
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SNP Ancestry Testing
STR Genetic Profile
DNA
Archiving |
$349.00 |
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We
accept Money Orders and Checks
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Order
online or call the office
at 866-437-1597 |
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*SNP
based ancestry testing takes approximately 4-5
week to complete. When the test is completed you
will receive a CD containing your results
in table showing your ancestral proportions, graphical
representation of your results and your tested
markers genotypes. |
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SNP technology can determine
your precise ancestral proportions. For example, it
might reveal that you are of 80% African and 20% Indo-European,
or 95% African and 5% Indo-European ancestry (or some other
mix/ratio, as the case may be). |
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The
human DNA code (genome) contains 3.1647 billion chemical nucleotide
bases (A, C, T, and G). Approximately,
99.9% of these nucleotide sequences are the same in all people. This
leaves about two million nucleotides (0.1%) that are unique
from person to person. These sequence differences account,
in part, for why we look, think, and behave differently and
some of these nucleotide variations (about 2,000 or so) are
dramatically different amount the various races. It
so happens that by analyzing your DNA sequences using Single
Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP)
technology at some of these latter sites, it is possible
to not only infer your major ancestry (which you probably
already know) but your ancestral proportions (which, you
probably do not know). For example, have you ever wondered whether
you are of purely Indo-European origin or a blend of Indo-European
and Native American (or other) ancestry? If you are of
majority African heritage, have you ever wondered whether you
are also of Indo-European descent, or perhaps of East Asian
descent? If you know that you are a blend of ancestries,
do you know what proportions you are of each? SNP technology
has allowed us to precisely determine your ancestral admixture
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BioGeographical
Ancestry (BGA) |
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Native
American |
Region
I |
South
and North American |
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Sub-Saharan
African |
Region
II |
all
African countries expect Algeria, Chad, Egypt,
Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia |
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Indo-European |
Region
III |
European, Middle Eastern
and South Asian |
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East
Asian |
Region IV |
Japanese,
Chinese, Korean and South Pacific |
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Single
Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) can be use to determine your Biological
ancestry proportion by identifying Ancestry Informative
Markers (AIMs) within your DNA. AIMs are located in that
0.1% of the human genome that differ in sequence between the
worlds various populations and by identifying
AIMs it is possible to make a strong inference of your ancestral
mix. The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) has identified
the worlds only comprehensive set of AIMs. This
patent pending science was published in late 1999, and then
again in 2001 and 2002 (See Parra et al.; Pfaff et al.; and
Frudakis et al). SNPs enable the determination of individual
ancestry proportions (called admixture ratios)
from DNA. Because it uses genetic markers spread throughout
all the chromosomes, with unique and specific anthropological
characteristics, it is quite a distinct product from STR,
Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA testing used in other types
of anthropological settings. |
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If
your proportions are of three or fewer ancestries, we would
provide you with a graphical "shapshot"
of your results called a triangle plot. This plot is provided
if your ancestry is derived from three or fewer groups (otherwise,
it is impossible to represent your data in 2-dimensional
space). The point on this plot is called a Maximum Likelihood
Estimate (MLE), and only one is shown on this plot. This
MLE represents the best estimate of your ancestral proportions.
To read a triangle plot, you drop a perpendicular line from
the vertex (triangle point) of each triangle to the triangle
edge below it. In this example, a line from the Native American
vertex to the line below serves as a scale for the percentage
of Native American ancestry from 0% at the base to 100%
at the vertex (or tip). This individual is about 15% Native
American. A line for each of the other two vertices
is created. In addition to being able to see that the person
is of 15% Native American ancestry, you can see that the
person is of 60% European Ancestry and 25% African ancestry
as well. You will notice that the three percentages must
add up to 100%. |
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African
American: In this example, individuals who described
themselves as African American were plotted (NAM-Native
American, EUR "Indo-European and AFR" African).
It can be seen that relatively few of these individuals
are of pure African descent (those whose point estimates
reside relatively close to the AFR vertex). Many
have significant EUR or NAM admixture (their
point estimate resides away from the AFR vertex
towards one or both of these). In fact some are more
Indo-European origin than African (their point estimates
reside further towards the EUR vertex than the AFR vertex).
It is well known that the history of African Americans
has been marked not only by the forced migration from
Africa, but also by the admixture with the other ethnic
groups they met when they arrived in North America, namely
Europeans and Native Americans. |
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However,
few historical records address the issue of admixture. Additionally,
there have been important factors that, in the time since
the abolition of slavery until the present, have configured
the present African-American population. Of special interest
is the pattern of migration of African Americans within
the US over the past 150 years.In
this sense, the redistribution of African Americans in the
Southern States during the 19th century, and the Great Migration
from the rural South to the urban areas in the North beginning
after World War I are of particular relevance, and have had
an enormous impact in defining the present distribution of
the African-American population in the US (Johnson and Campbell,
1981). The results thus appears to capture the differing levels
of NAM and EUR admixture present in African American
individuals |
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Caucasain: In
this example individuals who describe themselves as Caucasian?
were plotted. You see that most are of these individuals
plot in the EUR region of the triangle, but some
of the individuals exhibit significant NAM or AFR ancestry. |
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Hispanic
or Mexican American: Individuals that described
themselves as Hispanic or Mexican American.were plotted.
Mexican Americans show a high degree of NAM contribution,
which agrees with what is known from the anthropological
history. For example, it is known that soon after the
Spanish conquest of Mexico, at the beginning of the
16th century, intermixture of the Spanish men with
Amer-indian women resulted in an increasingly important
mixed population (Mestizos) and this racial mixing
continued through the three centuries of Spanish domination
in New
Spain?, configuring both biologically
and culturally the Mexican population. |
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Thus,
the distribution of ANCESTRY point estimates along the NAM-EUR axis
is consistent with what is known about the anthropological
history of this group. These are relatively simple examples,
using only a 3-dimensional plot with 3 ancestral groups. |
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References:
Parra, E. et al. 1998. Estimating
African American Admixture Proportions by Use of Population
Specific Alleles. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 63:1839-1851.
Pfaff,
C. et al. 2001. Population Structure in Admixed Populations:
Effect of Admixture Dynamics on the Pattern of Linkage Disequilibrium.
Am. J. Hum. Genet. 68:198-207.
Parra, E. et al. 2001.
Ancestral Proportions and Admixture Dynamics in Geographically
Defined African Americans Living in South Carolina. American
Journal of Physical Anthropology 114:18-29.
N
Patil et al. 2001. Blocks of limited haplotype diversity
revealed by high-resolution scanning of human chromosome
21 Science 294:1719-1723. |
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Ancestry
Testing
