Already 1,391

According to Relative Finder (RF) I have today 1,391 "genetic cousins" (Ashkenazi Jews like me have record numbers of cousins, probably owing to their over-representation as 23andme clients; for other possible explanations, see this previous post.)

I'm currently sharing my genetic information with 336 "cousins" and I've had 30 contact requests turned down (it happens). Also according to RF, I have a few dozen third cousins, a few fourth and fifth cousins, but the vast majority are so-called distant cousins - that is, people with whom I might share an ancestor from several centuries ago. Up to now, I haven't been able to confirm any of the estimated closest relationships, something I would have to do using the scarce information I have on my grand-parents, great-grandparents and so forth.

Oh cousin, who art thou?

23andme has a thing called Relative Finder which allows us to discover, among all the people who had their DNA analyzed by them, which are our "genetic cousins" - and also gives us the estimated proximity of that family relationship. But, for obvious privacy reasons, they don't reveal those persons' identities, and we are required to send them an invitation if we wish to contact them. Once we know who they are, we can proceed to try and compare paper trails and see if we have any known ancestors in common.

That's what I did with the one person estimated by RF to be my second cousin
(which would mean we have a set of great-grandparents in common): I sent her an invitation to contact me. She replied saying she accepted contact, but still didn't tell me who she was (did she forget to do it, did she not know how to do it, did she not wish to do it? I really don't know). But I still only know about her that she is a female and that her maternal haplogroup is N1b2. And I have no way to do anything else. I wrote her back several other messages, the last one on November 8, but still no answer. It's frustrating.

Abraham's Children in the Genome Era

Beautiful results published here! For the non-specialist, everything explained here (in Newsweek)

I earned a badge

This morning, when I logged into my 23andme account, I found out that I had earned myself a Research Pioneer Badge for my contribution “to the first 23andWe research discoveries” published yesterday in PLoS Genetics, and derived from the DNA testing of thousands of people from the public at large. Namely, from the company’s clients who, like me, consented to the use for research purposes of their personal genetic data and of their answers to one or more surveys.

This is the first time, says an editorial in that same publication, that a human genome-wide association study, or GWAS, is performed based on information gathered through the Internet and stemming from such a population. The study shows, according to its authors, that this approach is not only reliable, but that it also allows the discovery of novel genetic associations.

DNA swapping at 23andme

A few days ago, 23andme sent emails to 96 potentially affected clients warning them that the lab who reads the DNA for the company had mixed-up their genetic identities and sent them some other persons’ results.

The first sign that there was something wrong was a post, published on June 2nd, in the 23andme community section, by a mother who panicked when she accessed her family’s results online: “He was not a match for any of us. I checked his haplogroups and they were different from ours. I started screaming. A month before my son was born two local hospitals had baby switches”, she wrote. 23andme responded two days later telling her they were analyzing what might have happened.

Mistakes happen. What I don’t understand is that non-affected clients like myself only today learned about this through various blogs, and not directly from 23andme. The company’s response has been overly discrete, and to date, there has been no public announcement from them. It would really help if they were more transparent!

Spit again, please!

Two days ago I received my Family Tree DNA kit (by their kind courtesy). This means I’ll have to spit again into a little tube, this time to have my mitochondrial DNA fully sequenced, and not just a few SNPs, or point variations, as I’ve already done.

This is the ultimate test you can take to learn about your origins along your direct maternal line. Not only will it pinpoint ethnic and geographical origins with unprecedented precision, but it will also allow me to see if anybody else’s mtDNA in their database (which is currently the largest one there is, according to them) matches mine.

Still according to their site , this would mean that person and I share a common “grand-mother” in the not too distant past. And if so, we will have the opportunity to get in touch with each other.

I haven’t drooled into the tube yet, but when I do and the results come in, I’ll come back to this in due detail.

Inuk and me

In The Spittoon, 23andme’s blog, we are given the opportunity to compare some of our SNPs with those of Inuk, the man from 4000 years ago in Greenland who today officially became the first ancient human to have his genome almost completely sequenced (you can read here the article I published today in my newspaper, PÚBLICO - and if you don't read Portuguese you can read the Spittoon's post). I went and compared. Cool!

Image: Inuk by Nuka Godfredsen/Nature