Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Search for Adam

On TV just now

Haplogroup B is one of the oldest Y-chromosome lineages in humans. Haplogroup B is found exclusively in Africa. This lineage was the first to disperse around Africa. There is current archaeological evidence supporting a major population expansion in Africa

Y-Chromosome Biallelic Haplogroups

Biallelic SNP markers are single base-pair mutations (polymorphisms) that occur at different Y-chromosome locations about once every 7000 years. SNP=Single Nucleotide Polymorphism. There are 153 known haplogroups. Haplotypes defined by the 25 STR markers are subgroups under the haplogroups

Haplogroups I, I1, and I1a are nearly completely restricted to northwestern Europe. These would most likely have been common within Viking populations. One lineage of this group extends down into central Europe.


National Geographic Channel: Explorer: Explorer: Search for Adam: "Analyzing DNA from the cheek cells of a group of Mongolians enabled geneticist Spencer Wells, an Explorer-In-Residence at the National Geographic Society, to figure out whether they were indeed descendants of the notorious warrior who lived 800 years ago and thousands of miles away. Such exotic historical enigmas are daily fodder for Wells who is in the midst of the Genographic Project (GP)�a massive undertaking to sample human DNA from around the world to illuminate human genetic and migratory history.


There is a history book in your DNA [that reveals] how people are related to each other all over the planet and how we have moved around,� says Wells.
The last 10,000 years are of particular interest to Wells who, since childhood, wanted to be an historian. �I was fascinated by Egypt and Greece and Rome and all of these great empires and I�m very interested in the impact of these empires on the patterns of genetic variation�for example, can we see traces of the Phoenicians in North Africa?� says Wells.

His latest adventures have led him to discover that Thomas Jefferson�s ethnic background is not quite as one would expect. He has hunted down possible descendents of Solomon, the third king of Israel. And, he has entered a world where science and religion converge�the search for what he calls the �scientific Adam,� the man who gave rise to all men today and the �trunk� of the human family tree. Wells has used DNA to trace this common ancestor back to Africa and perhaps to the very plains where he may have hunted. He has even identified a living tribe with an ancient lineage that offers a window into the life of �scientific "

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