So much for us all being the same eh !
Genetic test to pinpoint where your ancestors came from 'to within five miles'
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:28 AM on 6th July 2010
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A simple genetic test could help people pinpoint where their ancestors came from to within a few miles, researchers said today.
A team at the University of Edinburgh found that DNA analysis can accurately predict the origins of rural people to within five miles of their family's home.
The findings suggest it may eventually be possible to work out the rural roots of city dwellers who have ancestors from different parts of the same country, researchers said.
Previous studies have uncovered genetic differences between populations in different countries, making it possible, for example, to predict whether someone is of northern or southern Italian descent.
Crowds on Oxford Street do Christmas shopping:
Crowds on Oxford Street do Christmas shopping: A new test can tell you where your ancestors came from to with five miles
The Edinburgh researchers, working with scientists in Italy and Croatia, tested whether the same analysis could be used to distinguish between people from the same country who were separated only by short distances.
The team, led by Jim Wilson, studied the genes of people whose four grandparents came from the same village in Scotland, Croatia or Italy. None of the volunteers were related to each other.
The results showed that by studying genetic differences, it was possible to distinguish between individuals who live in villages that are only five miles apart.
Researchers predicted the correct village of origin for everyone involved in the Italian study, 96% of the Scottish sample and 89% of people in the Croatian sample.
They concluded that the pattern could be explained by the fact that, long ago, people tended to marry within their own community. After many generations, the different villages developed their own genetic fingerprint, which can now be picked up by scientists.
Dr Wilson said of the study: 'It was quite surprising and quite exciting because we've known for a number of years that you can use the variation that people have in their DNA to tell whether they're African or East Asian or Native American - people who come from different continents.
'We've just worked up recently to telling apart, in one study at least, people who came from the north of Italy and people who came from Tuscany, halfway down Italy.
'I just wanted to see what the limit of this was, how far can you go.
'We had samples from villages very close together. We were able to ask whether you can tell people apart from basically next door.'
Dr Wilson said he hopes the findings will have wider implications as the technology involved becomes less expensive over the years.
'This exciting finding begs the question of whether we will be able to identify the rural origins of urban people with ancestry from many places across a country,' he said.
'These results hold out the possibility that with more data, using genome sequencing for instance, we might be able to do this.'
He suggested the study could be of particular interest to people in places like America and Australia, who are often keen to find out more about their ancestors.
Dr Wilson said: 'People are very interested in the past and where they come from.
'I think a lot of people in the New World - Canada, Australia - are very interested in where they come from. They'll do their family tree and they'll hit a brick wall. The paper records run out and they're still stuck in Virginia in 1770 and they can't get beyond that.
'They're the people who are very interested to see whether their family stories are true.'
The study is featured in the European Journal of Human Genetics.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1292390/Genetic-test-pinpoint-ancestors-came-miles.html#ixzz0stRm1tfV
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