Ancestry Surprises Genetics Analysis

New way to analyze genetic variation in human populations. The Yakut people of northern Siberia received a significant genetic contribution from Scotland.

Traditional methods of genome analysis tended to focus on one part of the human genome, such as the Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son. Other techniques took an oversimplified model of heredity that did not take chromosomal structure into account.

In this latest study, scientists from Ireland, the UK and the US analysed 2,540 genetic markers in the DNA of almost 1,000 people from around the world whose genetic material had been collected by the Human Genome Diversity Project.

The Yakut people of northern Siberia were found to have received a significant genetic contribution from the population of the Orkney Islands, which lie off the coast of Scotland. Orcadian genes also showed up in other East Asian populations, namely the Han of northern China and the Hezhen, another north-east Asian population. From this the scientists conclude that there must have been a period of gene flow from northern Europe to east Asia.

The study also shed light on the peopling of the Americas, as the results suggest that the native populations of north and south America have different origins. The researchers explain this by suggesting a scenario involving multiple waves of migration. In their proposed scenario, the population which first colonised North East Asia also crossed the Bering Strait and eventually made it to South America. This population was subsequently replaced by a population more closely related to modern East Asians. These people also successfully crossed the Bering Strait and contributed to the ancestry of the native North Americans.

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