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Journal ArticleDOI

In the name of the father: surnames and genetics

01 Jun 2001-Trends in Genetics (Elsevier)-Vol. 17, Iss: 6, pp 353-357
TL;DR: Recent studies involving Y-chromosomal haplotyping and surname analysis are promising and indicate that genealogists of the future could be turning to records written in DNA, as well as in paper archives, to solve their problems.
About: This article is published in Trends in Genetics.The article was published on 2001-06-01. It has received 191 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Patronymic surname.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review aims to provide an overview of how X and Y STR markers are currently being used in forensic laboratories, including the applications which target their use, the markers and multiplexes facilitating recovery of this genetic information, and the tools available to interpret the resulting data.
Abstract: Short tandem repeat (STR) markers are the cornerstone of forensic identity and kinship testing. Markers located on the X and the Y chromosome can complement those found on the autosomes, which are commonly used in laboratories today. The distinctive inheritance pattern of the sex chromosomes affords advantages to the investigation of family pedigrees required by mass disaster victim identification or missing persons cases, as well as mixed samples typically recovered in sexual assault crimes. This review aims to provide an overview of how X and Y STR markers are currently being used in forensic laboratories, including the applications which target their use, the markers and multiplexes facilitating recovery of this genetic information, and the tools available to interpret the resulting data. Emerging research topics are considered as well as issues requiring further study for both marker systems.

63 citations


Additional excerpts

  • ...to do so [42,43]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It was observed that at long geographic distances the isonymyc distance stays below linearity and tends to become asymptotic, and this was attributed to long distance migration.

60 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: From the analysis of surname distribution in 283 Spanish towns, it emerges that the northwestern area of Spain is the most inbred.
Abstract: In order to estimate the isonymy structure of Spain, we studied surname distribution in 283 Spanish towns based on 3.625 million telephone users selected from 6.328 million users, downloaded from a commercial CD-ROM which contains all 13 million users in the country. Since in Spain the surname is made by the paternal and the maternal surname, it was possible to classify surnames according to parental origin. Two matrices of isonymy distances, one for paternal and one for maternal surnames, were constructed and tested for correlation with geographic distance. For the whole of Spain, Euclidean distance was significantly but weakly correlated with geographic distance both for paternal and maternal surnames, with r = 0.205 ± 0.013 and r = 0.263 ± 0.012, respectively. Two dendrograms of the 283 sampled towns were built from the two matrices of Euclidean distance. They are largely colinear. Four main clusters identified by the dendrograms are correlated with geography. Given the surname structure of Spain, we were able to calculate from isonymy and for each town 1) total or expressed inbreeding, 2) random or expected inbreeding, and 3) local inbreeding. Total inbreeding, FIT, was highest in the North Atlantic regions and lowest along the Mediterranean Coast. The lowest levels were found in Andalusia, Catalunyia, Valencia, and Navarra. Random inbreeding, FST, had a similar geographical pattern. Local inbreeding, FIS, was relatively uniform in the whole of Spain. In towns, random inbreeding dominates over local inbreeding. From the analysis, it emerges that the northwestern area of Spain is the most inbred. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

57 citations

MonographDOI
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: This chapter discusses Genetics, Gender and Reproductive Technologies in Latin America, and the Moral and Sentimental Work of the Clinic: The Case of Genetic Syndromes.
Abstract: 1. Introduction: New Genetic Identities? 2. Genetic Advocacy Groups, Science and Biovalue: Creating Political Economies of Hope 3. Patients as Public in Ethics Debates: Interpreting the Role of Patient Organizations in Democracy 4. From 'Scraps and Fragments' to 'Whole Organisms': Molecular Biology, Clinical Research and Post Genomic Bodies 5. Fashioning Flesh: Inclusion, Exclusivity and the Potential of Genomics 6. Mapping Origins: Race and Relatedness in Population Genetics and Genetic Gnealogy 7. The Moral and Sentimental Work of the Clinic: The Case of Genetic Syndromes 8. Medical Classification and the Experience of Genetic Haemochromatosis 9. Towards an Anatomy of Public Engagement with Medical Genetics 10. Genetics, Gender and Reproductive Technologies in Latin America 11. Genomics, Social Formations and Subjectivity

52 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that by applying modern machine-learning algorithms the authors can infer with high accuracy the proper Y chromosome haplogroup of a sample by scoring a relatively small number of Y-linked short tandem repeats (STRs).
Abstract: Genetic variation on the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome contains information about the ancestry of male lineages. Because of their low rate of mutation, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the markers of choice for unambiguously classifying Y chromosomes into related sets of lineages known as haplogroups, which tend to show geographic structure in many parts of the world. However, performing the large number of SNP genotyping tests needed to properly infer haplogroup status is expensive and time consuming. A novel alternative for assigning a sampled Y chromosome to a haplogroup is presented here. We show that by applying modern machine-learning algorithms we can infer with high accuracy the proper Y chromosome haplogroup of a sample by scoring a relatively small number of Y-linked short tandem repeats (STRs). Learning is based on a diverse ground-truth data set comprising pairs of SNP test results (haplogroup) and corresponding STR scores. We apply several independent machine-learning methods in tandem to learn formal classification functions. The result is an integrated high-throughput analysis system that automatically classifies large numbers of samples into haplogroups in a cost-effective and accurate manner.

52 citations


Cites background from "In the name of the father: surnames..."

  • ...Genetic variation on the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome (NRY) has become the target of many recent studies with applications in a variety of disciplines, including DNA forensics [1,2], medical genetics [3], genealogical reconstruction [4], molecular archeology [5], non-human primate genetics [6], and human evolutionary studies [7–9]....

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Eric S. Lander1, Lauren Linton1, Bruce W. Birren1, Chad Nusbaum1  +245 moreInstitutions (29)
15 Feb 2001-Nature
TL;DR: The results of an international collaboration to produce and make freely available a draft sequence of the human genome are reported and an initial analysis is presented, describing some of the insights that can be gleaned from the sequence.
Abstract: The human genome holds an extraordinary trove of information about human development, physiology, medicine and evolution. Here we report the results of an international collaboration to produce and make freely available a draft sequence of the human genome. We also present an initial analysis of the data, describing some of the insights that can be gleaned from the sequence.

22,269 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
J. Craig Venter1, Mark Raymond Adams1, Eugene W. Myers1, Peter W. Li1  +269 moreInstitutions (12)
16 Feb 2001-Science
TL;DR: Comparative genomic analysis indicates vertebrate expansions of genes associated with neuronal function, with tissue-specific developmental regulation, and with the hemostasis and immune systems are indicated.
Abstract: A 2.91-billion base pair (bp) consensus sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome was generated by the whole-genome shotgun sequencing method. The 14.8-billion bp DNA sequence was generated over 9 months from 27,271,853 high-quality sequence reads (5.11-fold coverage of the genome) from both ends of plasmid clones made from the DNA of five individuals. Two assembly strategies-a whole-genome assembly and a regional chromosome assembly-were used, each combining sequence data from Celera and the publicly funded genome effort. The public data were shredded into 550-bp segments to create a 2.9-fold coverage of those genome regions that had been sequenced, without including biases inherent in the cloning and assembly procedure used by the publicly funded group. This brought the effective coverage in the assemblies to eightfold, reducing the number and size of gaps in the final assembly over what would be obtained with 5.11-fold coverage. The two assembly strategies yielded very similar results that largely agree with independent mapping data. The assemblies effectively cover the euchromatic regions of the human chromosomes. More than 90% of the genome is in scaffold assemblies of 100,000 bp or more, and 25% of the genome is in scaffolds of 10 million bp or larger. Analysis of the genome sequence revealed 26,588 protein-encoding transcripts for which there was strong corroborating evidence and an additional approximately 12,000 computationally derived genes with mouse matches or other weak supporting evidence. Although gene-dense clusters are obvious, almost half the genes are dispersed in low G+C sequence separated by large tracts of apparently noncoding sequence. Only 1.1% of the genome is spanned by exons, whereas 24% is in introns, with 75% of the genome being intergenic DNA. Duplications of segmental blocks, ranging in size up to chromosomal lengths, are abundant throughout the genome and reveal a complex evolutionary history. Comparative genomic analysis indicates vertebrate expansions of genes associated with neuronal function, with tissue-specific developmental regulation, and with the hemostasis and immune systems. DNA sequence comparisons between the consensus sequence and publicly funded genome data provided locations of 2.1 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A random pair of human haploid genomes differed at a rate of 1 bp per 1250 on average, but there was marked heterogeneity in the level of polymorphism across the genome. Less than 1% of all SNPs resulted in variation in proteins, but the task of determining which SNPs have functional consequences remains an open challenge.

12,098 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A method for constructing networks from recombination-free population data that combines features of Kruskal's algorithm for finding minimum spanning trees by favoring short connections, and Farris's maximum-parsimony (MP) heuristic algorithm, which sequentially adds new vertices called "median vectors", except that the MJ method does not resolve ties.
Abstract: Reconstructing phylogenies from intraspecific data (such as human mitochondrial DNA variation) is often a challenging task because of large sample sizes and small genetic distances between individuals. The resulting multitude of plausible trees is best expressed by a network which displays alternative potential evolutionary paths in the form of cycles. We present a method ("median joining" [MJ]) for constructing networks from recombination-free population data that combines features of Kruskal's algorithm for finding minimum spanning trees by favoring short connections, and Farris's maximum-parsimony (MP) heuristic algorithm, which sequentially adds new vertices called "median vectors", except that our MJ method does not resolve ties. The MJ method is hence closely related to the earlier approach of Foulds, Hendy, and Penny for estimating MP trees but can be adjusted to the level of homoplasy by setting a parameter epsilon. Unlike our earlier reduced median (RM) network method, MJ is applicable to multistate characters (e.g., amino acid sequences). An additional feature is the speed of the implemented algorithm: a sample of 800 worldwide mtDNA hypervariable segment I sequences requires less than 3 h on a Pentium 120 PC. The MJ method is demonstrated on a Tibetan mitochondrial DNA RFLP data set.

9,937 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A new algorithm for finding tandem repeats which works without the need to specify either the pattern or pattern size is presented and its ability to detect tandem repeats that have undergone extensive mutational change is demonstrated.
Abstract: A tandem repeat in DNA is two or more contiguous, approximate copies of a pattern of nucleotides. Tandem repeats have been shown to cause human disease, may play a variety of regulatory and evolutionary roles and are important laboratory and analytic tools. Extensive knowledge about pattern size, copy number, mutational history, etc. for tandem repeats has been limited by the inability to easily detect them in genomic sequence data. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for finding tandem repeats which works without the need to specify either the pattern or pattern size. We model tandem repeats by percent identity and frequency of indels between adjacent pattern copies and use statistically based recognition criteria. We demonstrate the algorithm’s speed and its ability to detect tandem repeats that have undergone extensive mutational change by analyzing four sequences: the human frataxin gene, the human β T cell receptor locus sequence and two yeast chromosomes. These sequences range in size from 3 kb up to 700 kb. A World Wide Web server interface at c3.biomath.mssm.edu/trf.html has been established for automated use of the program.

6,577 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This book aims to provide a history of Chinese modern art from 17th Century to the present day through the lens of 20th Century critics, practitioners, journalists, and mediaeval and modern-day critics.
Abstract: J. Craig Venter,* Mark D. Adams, Eugene W. Myers, Peter W. Li, Richard J. Mural, Granger G. Sutton, Hamilton O. Smith, Mark Yandell, Cheryl A. Evans, Robert A. Holt, Jeannine D. Gocayne, Peter Amanatides, Richard M. Ballew, Daniel H. Huson, Jennifer Russo Wortman, Qing Zhang, Chinnappa D. Kodira, Xiangqun H. Zheng, Lin Chen, Marian Skupski, Gangadharan Subramanian, Paul D. Thomas, Jinghui Zhang, George L. Gabor Miklos, Catherine Nelson, Samuel Broder, Andrew G. Clark, Joe Nadeau, Victor A. McKusick, Norton Zinder, Arnold J. Levine, Richard J. Roberts, Mel Simon, Carolyn Slayman, Michael Hunkapiller, Randall Bolanos, Arthur Delcher, Ian Dew, Daniel Fasulo, Michael Flanigan, Liliana Florea, Aaron Halpern, Sridhar Hannenhalli, Saul Kravitz, Samuel Levy, Clark Mobarry, Knut Reinert, Karin Remington, Jane Abu-Threideh, Ellen Beasley, Kendra Biddick, Vivien Bonazzi, Rhonda Brandon, Michele Cargill, Ishwar Chandramouliswaran, Rosane Charlab, Kabir Chaturvedi, Zuoming Deng, Valentina Di Francesco, Patrick Dunn, Karen Eilbeck, Carlos Evangelista, Andrei E. Gabrielian, Weiniu Gan, Wangmao Ge, Fangcheng Gong, Zhiping Gu, Ping Guan, Thomas J. Heiman, Maureen E. Higgins, Rui-Ru Ji, Zhaoxi Ke, Karen A. Ketchum, Zhongwu Lai, Yiding Lei, Zhenya Li, Jiayin Li, Yong Liang, Xiaoying Lin, Fu Lu, Gennady V. Merkulov, Natalia Milshina, Helen M. Moore, Ashwinikumar K Naik, Vaibhav A. Narayan, Beena Neelam, Deborah Nusskern, Douglas B. Rusch, Steven Salzberg, Wei Shao, Bixiong Shue, Jingtao Sun, Zhen Yuan Wang, Aihui Wang, Xin Wang, Jian Wang, Ming-Hui Wei, Ron Wides, Chunlin Xiao, Chunhua Yan, Alison Yao, Jane Ye, Ming Zhan, Weiqing Zhang, Hongyu Zhang, Qi Zhao, Liansheng Zheng, Fei Zhong, Wenyan Zhong, Shiaoping C. Zhu, Shaying Zhao, Dennis Gilbert, Suzanna Baumhueter, Gene Spier, Christine Carter, Anibal Cravchik, Trevor Woodage, Feroze Ali, Huijin An, Aderonke Awe, Danita Baldwin, Holly Baden, Mary Barnstead, Ian Barrow, Karen Beeson, Dana Busam, Amy Carver, Angela Center, Ming Lai Cheng, Liz Curry, Steve Danaher, Lionel Davenport, Raymond Desilets, Susanne Dietz, Kristina Dodson, Lisa Doup, Steven Ferriera, Neha Garg, Andres Gluecksmann, Brit Hart, Jason Haynes, Charles Haynes, Cheryl Heiner, Suzanne Hladun, Damon Hostin, Jarrett Houck, Timothy Howland, Chinyere Ibegwam, Jeffery Johnson, Francis Kalush, Lesley Kline, Shashi Koduru, Amy Love, Felecia Mann, David May, Steven McCawley, Tina McIntosh, Ivy McMullen, Mee Moy, Linda Moy, Brian Murphy, Keith Nelson, Cynthia Pfannkoch, Eric Pratts, Vinita Puri, Hina Qureshi, Matthew Reardon, Robert Rodriguez, Yu-Hui Rogers, Deanna Romblad, Bob Ruhfel, Richard Scott, Cynthia Sitter, Michelle Smallwood, Erin Stewart, Renee Strong, Ellen Suh, Reginald Thomas, Ni Ni Tint, Sukyee Tse, Claire Vech, Gary Wang, Jeremy Wetter, Sherita Williams, Monica Williams, Sandra Windsor, Emily Winn-Deen, Keriellen Wolfe, Jayshree Zaveri, Karena Zaveri, Josep F. Abril, Roderic Guigó, Michael J. Campbell, Kimmen V. Sjolander, Brian Karlak, Anish Kejariwal, Huaiyu Mi, Betty Lazareva, Thomas Hatton, Apurva Narechania, Karen Diemer, Anushya Muruganujan, Nan Guo, Shinji Sato, Vineet Bafna, Sorin Istrail, Ross Lippert, Russell Schwartz, Brian Walenz, Shibu Yooseph, David Allen, Anand Basu, James Baxendale, Louis Blick, Marcelo Caminha, John Carnes-Stine, Parris Caulk, Yen-Hui Chiang, My Coyne, Carl Dahlke, Anne Deslattes Mays, Maria Dombroski, Michael Donnelly, Dale Ely, Shiva Esparham, Carl Fosler, Harold Gire, Stephen Glanowski, Kenneth Glasser, Anna Glodek, Mark Gorokhov, Ken Graham, Barry Gropman, Michael Harris, Jeremy Heil, Scott Henderson, Jeffrey Hoover, Donald Jennings, Catherine Jordan, James Jordan, John Kasha, Leonid Kagan, Cheryl Kraft, Alexander Levitsky, Mark Lewis, Xiangjun Liu, John Lopez, Daniel Ma, William Majoros, Joe McDaniel, Sean Murphy, Matthew Newman, Trung Nguyen, Ngoc Nguyen, Marc Nodell, Sue Pan, Jim Peck, Marshall Peterson, William Rowe, Robert Sanders, John Scott, Michael Simpson, Thomas Smith, Arlan Sprague, Timothy Stockwell, Russell Turner, Eli Venter, Mei Wang, Meiyuan Wen, David Wu, Mitchell Wu, Ashley Xia, Ali Zandieh, Xiaohong Zhu T H E H U M A N G E N O M E

5,205 citations