National Geographic: The Genographic Project

Naffa

Naffa

Naffa

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Where do you really come from? And how did you get to where you live today? DNA studies suggest that all humans today descend from a group of African ancestors who—about 60,000 years ago—began a remarkable journey.

The Genographic Project is seeking to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species by using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. In this unprecedented and of real-time research effort, the Genographic Project is closing the gaps of what science knows today about humankind's ancient migration stories.
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This thread is about me purchasing a kit to take part in said project, just in case anybody else is curious enough to do the same. :)


The test simply consists of receiving the kit, swabbing your cheek twice and sending it back to the National Geographic. It took about two months in total, for me to get my results and I received them online, today.

Here is the map of my ancestry:

yi1062map.jpg



I'll condense the other information one receives:

YOUR GENETIC SEQUENCE




Type Y-Chromosome
Haplogroup I1(M253)
Your STRs
DYS393: 13 DYS439: 11 DYS388: 14 DYS385a: 13
DYS19: 15 DYS389-1: 12 DYS390: 22 DYS385b: 15
DYS391: 11 DYS389-2: 16 DYS426: 11 DYS392: 11

How to Interpret Your Results
Above are results from the laboratory analysis of your Y-chromosome. Your DNA was analyzed for Short Tandem Repeats (STRs), which are repeating segments of your genome that have a high mutation rate. The location on the Y chromosome of each of these markers is depicted in the image, with the number of repeats for each of your STRs presented to the right of the marker. For example, DYS19 is a repeat of TAGA, so if your DNA repeated that sequence 12 times at that location, it would appear: DYS19 12. Studying the combination of these STR lengths in your Y Chromosome allows researchers to place you in a haplogroup, which reveals the complex migratory journeys of your ancestors. Y-SNP: In the event that the analysis of your STRs was inconclusive, your Y chromosome was also tested for the presence of an informative Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP). These are mutational changes in a single nucleotide base, and allow researchers to definitively place you in a genetic haplogroup.
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You also get information about all of the Y-chromosome markers you possess:


Your Y-chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup I1 (M253).

The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day, ending with M253, the defining marker of haplogroup I1. Some in this lineage also carry the markers P40 and M227.

If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors' route, you will see that members of haplogroup I1 carry the following Y-chromosome markers:

M168 > P143 > M89 > L15 > P123 > M170 > M253
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Your Ancestral Journey: What We Know Now

M168: Your Earliest Ancestor

Fast Facts

Time of Emergence: Roughly 50,000 years ago

Place of Origin: Africa

Climate: Temporary retreat of Ice Age; Africa moves from drought to warmer temperatures and moister conditions

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 10,000

Tools and Skills: Stone tools; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills
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M89: Moving Through the Middle East

Fast Facts

Time of Emergence: 45,000 years ago

Place: Northern Africa or the Middle East

Climate: Middle East: Semiarid grass plains

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands

Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools
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M170: Occupying the Balkans

Fast Facts

Time of Emergence: 20,000 years ago

Place of Origin: Southeastern Europe

Climate: Height of the Ice Age

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Hundreds of thousands

Tools and Skills: Gravettian culture of the Upper Paleolithic
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M253: Surviving the Ice Age

Fast Facts

Time of Emergence: Roughly 15,000 years ago

Place of Origin: Iberian Refugia (Spain)

Climate: Ice Free Regions, or Refugia, During the Ice Age

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately one million.

Tools and Skills: Late Upper Paleolithic
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Just in case anybody is interested, it cost about £70 to do and really is fantastic. I'm extremely interested in evolution and how even our own species has evolved so something like this really excites me. :)
 
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