Menu Options

Welcome

DNA Cartoon

added 6/02/05

A Tool to Reunite Us

Our History as a Team

DNA/mtDNA Made Easy

Protecting Your Identity

added 6/25/05

Interpreting Your Results

Relevant Websites

updated 5/27/05

 

Choosing a

Testing Lab

added 6/17/05

Deep-Past Ancestors

DNA

updated 10/01/05

DNA Results

updated 5/19/05

Guide for

 'Matching'

added 6/23/05

Fastest Mutation

Y-Markers

added 5/14/05

mtDNA

updated 7/17/05

mtDNA Results

added 5/19/05

 

Y-DNA

Friends &

Relatives

added 10/04/05

 

                       

d Team Liddell et al    c

“No Longer Separated by Oceans and Centuries”

mtDNA (Mitochondria) Tests

Interpretation

 --18 May 05--

By James W. Liddell, with the Assistance of

the Staff of FamilyTreeDNA.Com

Procedures and General Information:

1. All Team Liddell et al data interpretations are conservative in nature, based on the idea that it is better to leave even a mildly questionable point unstated than to strain the data. Also, since the science of genealogy genetics is still very new, it is likely that further laboratory developments will refine and reshape modern conclusions over the next five to ten years. We believe, therefore, in providing here conclusions that will stand the test of time and could later become modified through expansion of interpretations in the future instead of being overturned. There are other current sources that are willing to go somewhat beyond what we provide there and all Study participants are welcome to explore these alternatives. The Team will assist as far as it can in these endeavors. But, basically, the Team's interpretation go only slightly beyond those provided by http://www.familytree.com/ and in doing this, only most frequently by applying specialized history to the specific areas where our ancestors are known to have lived, or we substantially suspect them to have lived.

2. In 2004, and after a two year study of alternatives, Team Liddell et al selected http://www.familytree.com/ to be its sole testing service for both Y-DNA from the male sexual chromosome and mtDNA, the female "X-chromosome". Tests from other services are not accepted into our Study, nor will we attempt to discuss them, in whole or in part. Within the territory of the United States of America, we accept only the 37-marker Y-DNA test and the mtDNAPlus test. Sometimes, when a "new" family line is being benchmarked by two or more male third-cousins, an additional special 12-marker "refinement" test is requested of at least two of the relatives if FTDNA can provide only "predicted" haplogroups for them in the results of the 37-marker test. The Team Liddell et al site Study address at the FTDNA site is: http://www.familytreedna.com/surname_join.asp?code=P66316&special=true

Abroad in non-USA lands, the 12-marker Y-DNA and basic mtDNA tests can be accepted into the Team's allied Liddesdale Study at FTDNA if an individual's personal budget forces the selection of these lower-performing tests. However, these latter, more limited tests provide nothing more than indications of general kinships and common ancient relationships of a very broad nature. While these findings are still useful to the Team's and the individual's test purposes, the use of the higher-quality tests is greatly preferred, since these allow the calculations of the likely times that "close' common ancestors lived. These lower priced tests are generally about half the cost of the senior-level ones. This arrangement was approved during early May 2005 by the then-current test participants as a gesture of friendship to their likely relatives abroad whose incomes have been determined in retirement to be lower than those of the Americans, and represents a radical shift in attitude by the Team. The Liddesdale site address is: www.familytreedna.com/public/Liddesdale/

(In early 2005, FTDNA was designated by National Geographic magazine as its sole testing service for the five-year "Origins of Mankind" Study to be conducted worldwide starting in the latter part of 2005. The Team plans to provide its own test results (with kit numbers only) to that Study as part of the "modern sector" database required to complete that study's full scope of research. Information on this new study is available at: http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/faqs.html)

 3. Since the Team and Liddesdale studies are classified by FTDNA as groups, we enjoy a bulk or wholesale kit rate on all kits. Many of these prices are available at the Team and Liddesdale sites. Ask us at teamliddell@yahoo.com about current prices before ordering a kit since FTDNA sometimes offers limited-time special prices.

 4. The personal data of all test participants are closely guarded by both FTDNA and the Team. Under no circumstances will either release any information whatsoever about an individual testee without that person's written permission. Additionally, the Team questions the intent of any member of the general public before contacting a specific test participant of interest if that public member first approaches the Team at any of its contact points instead of using the voluntary Y-DNA and mtDNA "matching sites" provided by FTDNA. The Team considers a genetic record to be the ultimate personal information and treats each with great respect. For this and other reasons, only kit numbers are displayed in our test-results reporting charts at this and other sites.

 5. Genealogy Genetics is a new science and came into being only during early 2000 when scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany completed a several-year study of 10,000 father-son pairs in an effort to determine the mutation rates of the various markers on the male Y-chromosome. The first 12 markers were the original research target and are now almost thoroughly understood. The 13-25 markers are substantially understood and all work on them is nearly completed. The 26-37 markers are currently useable but additional work is required and they will come on line in full usefulness during the next five to ten years. FTDNA is pledged to update all test results as the knowledge of 26-37 develops. (According to current reports, the 38-45 markers are considered by most scientists to have no genealogy value.) GG entered the marketplace only in 2003 and a number of fly-by-night early companies have folded during those 36 months but left a trail of mis-delivered test reports and sloppy lab work behind, thus the Team's acceptance of only FTDNA results. The Team was gratified to learn that its selection of FTDNA dovetailed with the decision of National Geographic because of the selection of markers used by FTDNA in its array and because of the professionalism of its staff and lab work.

 6. The study of and "traditional" perspectives toward mtDNA (mitochondria) and the unique haplogroups assigned to females has undergone a major scientific revolution in the past 24 months and with major new findings published just in the past three months in a stunning series of studies that looked for the first time in depth at females on a geographical basis now that some of the basic genetic structure of mitochondria is understood.

The largest change is the breaking up of several of the female haplogroups into subdivisions of the previously "clumped-together" ones that had no subdivisions. Principally among these is the H (Helena) one, which is also the most common in Europe and very much the feminine counterpart of the male R1b haplogroup, which is also very widespread across that continent and by far the most common for males.

But another aspect of these studies now offers the distinct opportunity to study mitochondria for its contributions to inherited diseases and the tendency to develop specific undesirable medical conditions through inheritance. One study appears to infer that mitochondria is responsible for a major portion of inherited and medically-related tendencies to develop diseases and even goes to the point of stating that aging is a direct result of mitochondria (which both males and females have) being unable to repair short-term mutations falling within single life-spans.

Since there is substantially no structural or procedural commonality between the Y and X sex chromosomes, and because the Y-chromosome is a fairly straight-forward cell structure that is already fairly well settled, whereas mitochondria now appears to be scarcely understood because of its incredibly subtle and inordinately complex makeup, it appears certain that the coming years will see geneticists increasingly concentrating their research on teasing out the secrets of mitochondria as well as reshaping and redefining its haplogroups.

Luckily for the Team and as with Y-DNA test results, FTDNA will continue to track these mtDNA developments and will update test results as becomes appropriate.

(See the Team's essays elsewhere in this website for additional information on the key points raised above.)

 General Information about the Team's Study:

 Team Liddell et al launched its DNA/mtDNA Study on 15Oct04 and within weeks had six enrollments, both male and female. Because of a number of unusual test report indications, several males ordered the 12-marker refinement test for haplogroups, while one male later purchased the Whole Ancestry male and female combined test. Our test participants are most likely among the most tested on several planes of all of the FTDNA groups. Because of FTDNA's rapidly growing business and the need for additional testing by Team males, this second interpretation was not released in February as originally scheduled but delayed until now.

Because of the male's mtDNA testing and the test results we now in hand, we now have two mtDNA models to examine in the Liddell lines involved in our Study. The direct female kin to the female and male who have completed testing can safely view those results as being their own as well-- the male's sisters,  mother and the daughters of the sisters, since mitochondria mutates only over extremely long ranges as compared to male Y-DNA.

As it is, one additional male Y-DNA refinement test (Kit 26788) is still in the lab because of its recent ordering, and a third-cousin to 26788 only entered the FTDNA labs two weeks ago. (It now takes the full two months for FTDNA to report out all three portions of a male's Y-DNA marker array test results. Females also are taking the same amount of time.)

There are several objectives among the Team's Study goals. Several Y-DNA specific study objectives have already been achieved and are listed in the Y-DNA Interpretation report elsewhere at this website. Today, with these particular goals accomplished, we now are looking at the next tier of goals. These include: A. providing research guidance for family genealogists when the records have run out ) time wise and geographical), B. Quick identification of related family lines, C. Determination of most-ancient ancestry (ethnicity and before current ethnic groups existed), D. Calculations of the time periods for the most likely time of living for a Most Recent Common Ancestor for two presently separate family lines (when one existed, that is), and E. Discoveries of previously unknown adoptions and infidelities (Both are very unlikely in all lines! Scientists estimate that "unk As and Is" occur only about 1.5 to 2.5 percent of the time in any given generation.) Some of these are Y-DNA specific and some are applicable to both genders. 

Completed Research Objectives:

Several major research questions relating to our mitochondria test participants have already been answered in just the first eight months from the Study launch date on 15Oct04.  

-- The first is the establishment of a haplogroup pattern (definition follows in next section) for Liddell et al females. At present, this consists of only one: H.

-- A second research objective was to uncover individuals who genetically match with the Team's females. This also have been accomplished and contact has begun between Team participants and these other individuals previously unknown to members of Team Liddell et al. At least one likely documentable relationship already appears to have been found and one common geographical origins relationship is currently being explored by both involved families.

-- A third research objective was to obtain likely information regarding the origins, ethnically and geographically, of the Study females. This has been largely accomplished, although recent scientific advances are forcing immediate additional study so that these indications can be geographically narrowed in light of the recent reordering of H from a broadly encompassing haplogroup to one that recognizes the presence of several sub-haplogroups previously unsuspected to have identifiable genetic patterns.

Specific Findings for Team Liddell Lines:

--Technical Information--

(Haplogroup: An unscientific definition but a useable one is that a haplogroup is a "tribe" of genetically-related individuals--in this essay, females. These individuals belong to a group with great antiquity, reaching back at times a great expanse of time before the last major Ice Age. Luckily, for the Team's purposes, Europe was far less a land of ancient conquest than the broad plains of Asia and elsewhere on the globe. Populations tended to drift into the continent in slow waves, when they came at all--Europe not being the most hospitable of the continents and often filled with cold, fogs and rains, and ever-changing climates. Thus, nearly all of Europe's known haplogroups are relatively few in number and nearly all Middle-Eastern in origin. There is only one haplogroup represented among the Team's Study female participants: H, Europe's most common but also now shown by research published only in recent months to be the most interesting one.) 

(Mitochondria: The female sex chromosome has two equally important parts to it, each very nearly a mirror image of the other. Both are HVR and then either "1" or "2" added to that. According to Dr. David Roper, a leading geneticist," mtDNA is a circular structure composed of 16,569 nucleotides, also called base pairs (13 genes). (It is believed that the mitochondria were originally parasitic bacteria which, through evolution, became symbiotic with the human cell and then became an integral part of the cell; bacterium DNA is circular.) There is a 540 base-pair section labeled 16001-16540 that evolves faster than other sections, so it is used to distinguish human groups that evolved separately. In the table below [not shown in this Team interpretation] there are two sets of four rows that list the 540 base pairs: the first row starts at position 16001 and ends at 16100, the second row encompasses 16101-16200, the third row encompasses 16201-16300, the fourth row encompasses 16301-16400, the fifth row encompasses 16401-16500 and the fourth row encompasses 16501-16540. The Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS) is the sequence of base pairs for a specific person to which all other persons are compared."

And that is a direct quote from his website. Lots of luck in understanding it. But what is fairly easy to understand is this: (1) mtDNA mutates extremely slowly and is stable in a particular line of females [always mother to  daughter and the child's sisters] sometimes over tens of thousands of years whereas traditional genealogy-based kinship relationships for men rarely can calculated back more than 1000 years, (2) HVR1 and HVR2 serve as checks on each other in a self-correcting loop to guard against mutations in critical areas of the cell (the human blueprints stored there) although other parts can and do mutate without corrections--thus the distinct lines of women within a particular haplogroup [the male "Y" self-corrects in a totally different manner], (3) the mitochondria, also referred to as mtDNA, is the same as the "XX" you sometimes see as a notation for the very same thing, (4) men receive an "X" from their mothers but that inherited mitochondria dies with them as they cannot pass it on to either their daughters or their sons and they get their "Y" DNA from their fathers and cannot pass this to their daughters but can and do to their sons [another notation for the male is XY or, sometimes, YX]. and (5) because of surname changes by females in most Western societies at the time of marriage, applying genetics genealogy is very tricky work for them but also very rewarding when done properly.

(The Seven Daughters of Eve: This is the title of a fairly recent book by a British scholar, Dr. Bryan Sykes but is now a dated classification effort, since the "seven" have become "ten", and only recently. Again, genealogy genetics is a young science and a rapidly evolving one. To allow the reader a means of comparison of previous understandings and the new, we set out Dr. Sykes' category set in brief form in this paper but first, we provide a brief restatement of the work of Dr. Douglas C. Wallace of Emery University who has developed a "history" of the Daughters of (an African) Eve who produced the N Daughter that Sykes uses in his own work.

 >>__________________________________________________________________________<<

Dr. Douglas C. Wallace

Dr. Douglas C. Wallace of Emery University near Atlanta has established a genetic tree for these women. According to Wallace, American Indians are descended from Eve's Daughters A, B, C and D; Europeans from her Daughters H-K and T-X (I, J and K in the Mediterranean Basin: T, U, V and W in Central Europe and H, U and X in Scandia), Asians from Daughter M; and all Black Africans from Daughter L.  

Daughter L--an Eve's Eve after a fashion--has an interesting family line according to Wallace since he believes that her Northeast African descendants come from her Daughters L1, L2 and L3, with Daughter L3's two daughters, M and N leaving Africa to become the ancestors of Europeans and Asians, and eventually, the Indians of the Americas as well.

Wallace also believes that he has found traces of L3's Daughter X (a child of the Caucasus) in a few northwestern North America Indians and, possibly, again in the lower Amazon Basin.

 Dr. Bryan Sykes

A British scholar, Dr. Bryan Sykes, along with researchers at Oxford University, have named the seven female matriarchal descendants of Daughter N and relate brief histories of their clans and their importance to European history. This is the daughter that Wallace believes the record shows as leaving Africa with her sister Daughter M for the Middle East about 50,000 years ago. The initial letter of each Daughter's name matches the letter assigned to her reprehensive haplogroup--thus Helena is "H".

 Matriarchal descendants of Daughter N

Helena--Settled in the Pyrenees, moved into England at the end of the last Ice Age and then across Europe.

Jasmine--Developed agriculture and domesticated animals in Syria, later moved into Europe.

Katrine--Early Veniceans--10,000 years later, her descendants are now in the Alps.

Tara--Moved into Tuscany north of Rome 17,000 years ago, now found in England.

Ursula--Stone-age people who settled across the face of Europe.

Valda--In Spain 17,000 years ago, now also found in Finland and Norway.

Xenia--In the Caucasus 25,000 years ago and later found across Europe and in the northwest of North America and possibly in the Amazon Basin.

It's important to remember that mtDNA mutates extremely slowly and that each matriarchal strain passes to future generations, other than to immediate sons, only through daughters. The immensely slow mutation rates mean that 10,000s of modern women are mtDNA identical and are, both technically and in fact, actually sisters, and can trace back to one of the seven daughters of Daughter N.

 >>__________________________________________________________________________<<

To conclude, then, the Seven Daughters of Eve [in Europe] have become the Ten Daughters of Eve [in Europe] as a result of improved scientific understanding. Today, the I, M and W haplogroups have been added to the Seven Daughters but with no feminine names attached. Some 75 percent of European mtDNA is accounted for by H (50%), J (14%),  and U (16%). Today, K is commonly being lumped with U. The assumed oldest female haplogroup in Europe is M which probably arrived 53-69,000 years ago. The H, J, T (6% of all European mtDNA) and, perhaps, V haplogroups are viewed as the most recent to arrive in Europe--about 10-32,000 years ago.

Haplogroups H, I, J, K, T and W are essentically European only and probably originated after "Causasoids" separated from Africans and Asians. U also appears among Japanese, Berbers and two small portions of Africa--Senagalese and Ethiopeans. I, V, W and X are very rare and it is difficult to discern among I, W and X. There are some very small knots of other mtDNA haplogroups in isolated parts of mostly Eastern Europe, as might be expected.

Haplogroups I, J and K are most often found today in southwestern Europe. M absolutely dominates the Middle East, as might be expected from its earliest arrival of all in Europe. 

[Curiously, like U, one of the male haplogroups commonly found in Europe also makes a continental leap and appears among Japanese males.]

As an aside, 76 percent of Africa mtDNA is L haplogroup, 77 percent of Asian mtDNA is D and A, and AmerInds are 100 percent A, B, C or D.

One researcher has to spoil the broth, however, with the observation that mtDNA can do parallel mutations just as Y-DNA does and that matriarchal matches may not necessarily be actual matriarchal matches but instead simple converging accidents of random mutation.

In case you lost track of where you are in this paper, this completes the Seven Daughters of Eve section.)

(Sub-classifications of H: Because of the very recent expansion of the H haplogroup to include a still growing number of sub-groups within the H category, Team Liddell et al is unable at this time to deal with any level lower than the H haplogroup as a whole since identification by H sub-groups depends on a very detailed analysis of the test results. This currently inability will be corrected as soon as possible in consultations with the FTDNA staff experts and even with the faculty of the University of Arizona, if necessary.

A 2005 paper in the FTDNA on-line reference library, "High-resolution mtDNA evidence ..." by Luisa Pereira et al, holds that H accounts for nearly half of all European mtDNA and originated in the Near East about 28,000 years ago and spread into Europe about 20,000 years ago. The last Major Ice Age drove nearly all homo sapies sapies into the "Iberian refugium" [Spain] where they barely held on and, Pereira says, evolved the sub-groups H1 through at least H17 and with H1 breaking into H1a, H1b and so forth. The recognition of these sub-groups is still very expansive. H1 through H4 are the main subgroup of interest at this point. Whereas H is fairly evenly distributed across Europe but with its highest consistent presence in Spain, Sardinia, England, Norway and Poland, H1 is more prevalent in these same areas plus Austria/Hungary and Portugal. H3 tends to show strongest in Sardinia and Italy. What is most interesting in the distributions is that if H1 and H3 are subtracted from H, the haplogroup loses its western Europe nature and become slanted toward eastern Europe and the Near East.

Thus, it is supposed at present by Pereira et al that H1 and H3 did not appear first in the Near or Middle East and migrate into Europe with the rest of H but, instead, first appeared in western Europe--during or post the last Major Ice Age and then spread outward back across Europe alongside the rest of H.)

(Concerning the Celts: Until very recently [within the life of Team Liddell et al], R1b was regarded as principally western European, and, therefore, likely the trace of surviving Celts, but now R1b is known to be a common European haplogroup represented all across the continent, but sometimes thinly and sometimes in" clumps". R1b is NOT uniquely Celtic. In fact, there is no haplogroup uniquely identified as Celt, just as no other haplogroup is uniquely identified with a specific ethnic group. [James V. Elliott of the Reivers Study says that the modern belief is that Celt was anciently a language and culture group rather than a "blood-people" {volk}. He also says that the two R1b Liddells with very low 385b values {Kits 27373 and 26664, who are third-cousins} possibly originate in the Balkans {Albania and Greece} where this low reading is much more common than elsewhere in Europe. This, however, is only an indication and not a thing to be taken to the bank, as these two Liddell third-cousins could simply be native Britons who accidentally mutated to that value over 1000s of years. Elliott noted, however, that this low value is both "rare and distinctive".]) 

H haplogroup

Kits 27783 and 26788

Kit 27783 is a female and had nine matches at the "low resolution" HVR1 level and one match at the "high resolution" HVR1+HVR2 level. She has contacted only one of her matches--the high-resolution one--and believes that the man she has corresponded with and she have a common grandmother about five or six generations back on her material side. This situation present all sort of possibilities including ethnicity discoveries, increased knowledge of her ancestors' geographic origins and/or migration routes and perhaps even suggestions for completing a puzzling portion of her genealogy charts and even opening up new kinship lines. Not much more can be developed at this stage until more of her "matches" are contacted. 

Kit 26788 is a male who tested for "Whole Ancestry" which benefits his immediate female relatives (mother, sister and their direct female ancestors and descendants). His sister, who--by definition--has identical mtDNA, is aggressively contacting the four matches that the FTDNA computer has presented her as a result of her brother being mtDNA tested. The family knows that their ancestors arrived in New York Harbor shortly after the American Revolutionary War and they have an oral tradition that some sojourned in Pennsylvania before moving into Mississippi just as the northern half of that state was opening to White settlement in the early 1800s. Interestingly, one of the male "matches" provided by the FTDNA computer states that some of his ancestors were in Pennsylvania at the right time to have been in the vicinity of her "oral tradition" Liddells. Gen chart comparisons with the three female "matches" are still in process at present and nothing more can be stated here as this time. 

Conclusions:

While Genealogy Genetics science often can break through the brick wall of absent or incomplete records and keep a research effort alive, or else, assist to focus searches to better understand those confusing indications stacked dustily in some drawer, there is also the really enjoyable possibility that males and females can learn what their most remote ancestors were doing and where, respectively, thousands and tens of thousands of years ago. 

Still, this new science is still evolving even while it increasingly reveals what our sexy chromosomes really are up to! One scientist at the University of Edinburgh has held, for example, that the mitochondria a male inherits from his mother may--just may--sometimes have an effect on the female mtDNA of his own generation during conception, and that female mutation rates need to be recalibrated closer in time. 

Others say he is completely wrong. The answer to this controversy is not clear at present, and it is best to wait to hear from the jury on this. 

Even the Out-Of-Africa theory, itself, is still disputed. For example, one current scientist's somewhat eerie opinion is that modern male and female humans do not share common ancestors genetically and that there is no discernable genetic evidence that the Adam and the Eve discussed above were mates. He believes that modern humans descend from homo sapiens sapiens who first appeared in groups that evolved independently of each other from more primitive Homo species outside of Africa and then met and mated only after thousands of years had passed and with all their other kinship lines died out. 

He is among a group of academics who in general argue that our most remote ancestors left Africa as a species less developed than Homo sapiens sapiens--among the leading candidates is Homo erectus--and then evolved into our species somewhere in Near or Central Asia and later reentered Africa while otherwise spreading out over our planet.  

 

End of File

Top of Page