Gene Study Identifies 5 Main Human Populations

New York Times ^ | December 20, 2002 | Nicholas Wade

[SunkenCiv]

Scientists studying the DNA of 52 human groups from around the world have concluded that people belong to five principal groups corresponding to the major geographical regions of the world: Africa, Europe, Asia, Melanesia and the Americas. The study, based on scans of the whole human genome, is the most thorough to look for patterns corresponding to major geographical regions. These regions broadly correspond with popular notions of race, the researchers said in interviews. The researchers did not analyze genes but rather short segments of DNA known as markers, similar to those used in DNA fingerprinting tests, that have no apparent function in the body... The issue of race and ethnicity has forced itself to biomedical researchers' attention because human populations have different patterns of disease, and advances in decoding DNA have made it possible to try and correlate disease with genetics. The study, published today in Science, finds that "self-reported population ancestry likely provides a suitable proxy for genetic ancestry." In other words, someone saying he is of European ancestry will have genetic similarities to other Europeans... a leading population geneticist, Dr. Neil Risch of Stanford University, argued recently that race was a valid area of medical research because it reflects the genetic differences that arose on each continent after the ancestral human population dispersed from its African homeland... The new result is based on blood samples gathered from around the world as part of the Human Genome Diversity Project, though on a much less ambitious scale than originally intended. Dr. Feldman and his colleagues analyzed the DNA of more than 1,000 people at some 400 markers. Because the sites have no particular function, they are free to change or mutate without harming the individual, and can become quite different over the generations.

[blam]

"Well, I actually searched for that exact title, now I’m feelin’ bad..."

LOL.

Don't feel bad...I was just lucky enough to have bookmarked it (way back when) and remember it only because I see it when I routinely scan my bookmarked list. So...

You're doing good.
("Keep up the good work Sonny Boy", my dear old dad would say)

[Verginius Rufus]

The power of positive thinking, on steroids. It says that someone who says he is of European ancestry will show European traits in his DNA. So if I were to say I had Cherokee ancestry, my DNA would show Native American characteristics?

I need to do some research to find out which kind of ancestry is healthiest and produces greatest longevity, and claim that.

[blam]

UC Davis Study Finds Distinct Genetic Profiles

"Seldin and his group set out to discover which SNPs among Europeans could account for shared common ancestry. "We saw a clustering of individuals that come from either southern Europe or derived from populations that left southern Europe, or the Mediterranean, in the last 2,000 years," Seldin said. This allowed the group to identify a set of 400 informative SNP markers that scientists could now use to control for European ancestry when conducting genetic studies of disease, response to drug treatment, or side effects from therapy."

"In addition to future medical applications, the data are also of interest to anthropologists who study historical human migrations. The Southern grouping included individuals from Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The Northern group included people with English, Irish, German, Swedish and Ukranian ancestry. These groups correspond to those historically divided by the Pyrenees and Alps mountain ranges."

"With respect to population genetics, previous studies have shown that SNPs correlate broadly with continental ancestry, dividing modern humans into four large groups: Asia, Africa, Oceana, America and continental Europe. The new study gives scientists the evidence they need to further subdivide people with European ancestry into the Northern and Southern groups when looking for SNPs that may be involved in disease."

[Pharmboy]

Not at all...do not feel bad since you reminded me of a great old thread! Thanks!!

[buckalfa]

I should be zotted, banned, pilloried, drawn and quartered, then subjected to an eternity of watching film clips of her at press conferences. What was I thinking?

[blam]

Minatogawa People (An Asian Neanderthal?)

[gleeaikin]

I was helping some Hispanics fill out the census for. One, of Puerto Rican ancestry had to check all 3 races. The other, from Peru, checked Caucasian and Native American, but did not know her tribe. She looked very Indian. On the other hand my late husband was a blue eyed redhead, and was very surprised when shortly before her death his mother told him he was 1/16th Cree Indian.

[PapaBear3625]

The Southern grouping included individuals from Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The Northern group included people with English, Irish, German, Swedish and Ukranian ancestry.

After many thousands of years of commerce, travel, migration, and interbreeding, the people of the lands on the Mediterranean have more in common with each other than they do with the continents they are on.

[colorado tanker]

"Sociologists don't have the competence to go there," he said.

My favorite line in the article too!

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

I should do that, I mean, check blam’s FR links page. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

I'm amused and bemused that FR is the only website apparently that gets copyright complaints (or at least, is the only one law-abiding enough to act on them):

Google

[fishtank]

(1) Noah and three sons

(2) Noah’s wife

(3) First son’s wife

(4) Second son’s wife

(5) Third son’s wife.

****************

= Five groups total.

[Interesting Times]

Of course, much more of Melanesia was above water at the time...