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SNP testing background |
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Your Y-chromosome made you the man you
are today. Quite literally. It contains the genetic switch that
sent you down the path of turning you into a baby boy. But before
it reached you, your Y-chromosome had been on an incredible
journey.
Picture yours about 300 million years ago. This is a time long
before humans. Even before dinosaurs. Earth was dominated by
plants and insects, but this time had also given rise to mammal-like
reptiles. This is where your Y-chromosome started. Say hello
to your ancestors.
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| An anomaly,
a glitch, a simple genetic hiccup
changed an X-chromosome to a Y-chromosome. This new chromosome
worked, and so was preserved and passed onto the next
generation. |
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Now zoom forward to just 5 million years ago. The mammal-like
reptiles have evolved considerably. Primates are now common.
These include lemurs, lorises and tarsiers but also monkeys
and apes. Humans are part of this last category and 5 million
years ago is about the time when we said our evolutionary goodbyes
to our primate cousins and followed our own genetic path, taking
your Y-chromosome with them.
Humans had been living in East Africa for some time. Roughly
80 thousand years ago, modern man decided to move. First just
within Africa, but then from that time to this, man has come
to inhabit virtually every part of the globe.
Each population around the world has their own long journey
to tell of. Whether they stayed within Africa or took the path
out of Africa, we can now track these movements with the aid
of genetics.
Your DNA has changed slightly over the past 80 thousand years.
We call these changes SNP's (pronounced 'snips' and short for
'Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms'). Each SNP is a change in
the DNA code at one single letter. These changes only happen
once in history at any one place along the DNA and can be thought
of as a fork in the road.
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If one brother had this SNP mutation,
and another didn't, the brothers go separate ways. Because
each of their sons respective sons will have these different
mutations, and all of their descendants, we end up with
two large branches of the Y-chromosome tree. |
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If some people then traveled out of Africa they took this
Y-chromosome mutation, this identifying branch with them.
If we fast forward to the present day, we now see many of
these large branches all around the globe. We call these branches
'haplogroups' and we label them Haplgroup A through to Haplogroup
R.
We see Haplogroup A in Africa, Haplogroup D in East Asia,
Haplogroup H in India, Haplogroup I in Europe, Haplogroup
M in Indonesia and Haplogroup Q in North America. And many
others.
In our newly developed Y-SNP test we are able to analyze your
Y-chromosome at a far more in-depth level than has ever been
commercially available; and even more advanced
than most research laboratories.
Rather than solely testing for Haplogroup R1b, a haplogroup
found in countries along the western coast of Europe (Spain,
Portugal, France, England, Scotland etc.) we can now test
for subhaplogroups R1b3a, R1b3b, R1b3c etc. two levels below
what was previously possibly.
 Rather than just testing for Haplogroup O which is found in
countries in South-East Asia (Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand
and China) we can now test two and more levels below what
was previously possible so that O2a1, O3d1 and O3e1.
And with this increase in genetic resolution comes an advance
in geographic resolution. So you might find you are in sub-haplogroup
I1b2 seen almost exclusively in Sardinia; J2f1 found, but
only rarely, in the Balkans and Pakistan; or in E3b3 - common
in Israel down to the Horn of Africa and along the south of
the Mediterranean,
The following link
will take you to our haplogroup map which shows how all
men on the planet are connected via the Y-Chromosome Tree.
Each and every man can find where his 300 million year old
Y-chromosome fits into this tree structure and see where else
on the planet that the same genetic patterns can be seen.
The test is for males only. The SNP tests are blinkered in that they only look at one single genetic line, whereas we are of course a genetic mixture of many of our ancestors. But it's an interesting part of us traceable for many thousands of years!
Our SNP FAQ's will
answer any questions you may have.
New customers can order here.
Past and existing customers can Log into Oracle and click
on the 'Order SNP test' button.
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North American office: P.O. Box 1028, Richmond, TX 77406-1028 USA tel/fax: Toll free 866-7-DNA-DNA |
European office: 40 Preston Road, Weymouth, Dorset,
DT3 6PZ, UK tel:+44 (0) 1305 834936 fax:+44 (0)
1305 835925 |
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