FMUL News
Test Your Roots
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Those who set out on this activity of discovering their roots tends to become addicted, given that genealogy ends up becoming a sort of game with the aim of going back as far as possible in time. When we discover our ancestors we also get to know our family and we appreciate hereditariness and the cultural values that are passed down from generation to generation. As José Carlos Soares Machado, president of the Portuguese Association of Genealogy, states “(…) only one percent of people knows the names of their great great-grandparents”.
The DNA Root Tester Portugal genealogy project is a partnership between the Portuguese Association of Genealogy and the IMM. The Portuguese Association of Genealogy is dedicated to genealogical, heraldic and historical research in general, and over recent years a new area of research has arisen, which is that of genetics applied to genealogy. This new science, also called genetealogy (coming from genealogy and genetic) allows one to analyse descendence from a genetic point of view, based on historical information.
Interest in genealogy gives rise to the challenge of gathering information about our ancestors. Photographs, cards and personal memories are good starting points. Parish records might be useful, and are fundamental for discovering places of baptism; there are also district records, the Torre do Tombo national archive, which may provide digitalised information, and there are some records available for consultation on the Internet. This search for historical information may be complemented later on with genetics through a test. The DNA Root Tester allows one to discover who one’s remote ancestors were or identify relatives lost in the more recent history of the family through tests that can be carried out through a sample. This test is supplied in a kit made up only of a sterilised cotton bud, which should be used to swab the inside of the mouth, a capsule for storing the cotton bud after taking the sample, an envelope for sending the sample to the laboratory and a document of consent. The kit may be ordered through the website, and the result is transmitted over the net through access to a personal area. The kit will be available from February 2009, on the project website: (www.dnaroottester.com).
There are three different types of tests that can be carried out: the study of paternal ancestry, the study of maternal ancestry, and the study of kinship. Paternal ancestry can only be analysed in men because it has the Y chromosome, which is inherited from the father and passed on only to male children. Analysis of DNA segments from this chromosome reveals the migratory routes travelled by a person’s ancestors in relation to the paternal lineage. Believing in the existence of a common ancestry (“Adam”), there was a differentiation in the population over time through the accumulating of genetic variations called mutations. As small population groups migrated and colonized new territories they became isolated and genetically divergent from their ancestors due to the occurrence of mutations. Thus, each population group confined to a determined geographical region acquired a genetic profile of its own, and many of the lineages were transmitted from generation to generation down to today. In the whole of the world’s population there are eighteen different genetic signatures for the male sex, each one corresponding to a genetic group called a haplogroup.
In relation to maternal ancestry, analysis is carried out through mitochondrial DNA. This genetic material, which is found in small, energy-producing cells inside the cell, is exclusively inherited from mothers. Both boys and girls receive the mitochondria from their mothers, and only the women will pass this on to their children. This is due to fertilisation: when the spermatozoid penetrates the ovule, its contribution to the formation of the zygote is only in DNA, with the cell structures of the ovule being maintained. Thus, by doing a test on the mitochondrial DNA it is possible to establish the migratory routes followed by a person’s ancestors only in relation to maternal lineage. Over thirty groups of mitochondrial DNA are known, and each group may include several sub-groups. The common ancestry of these different genetic may have been “mitochondrial Eve”, who lived about 200 thousand years ago in the region of today’s Ethiopia.
With the DNA Root Tester it is possible to reveal some of the family secrets that have probably managed to escape from paper records, allowing one to identify cousins who are 12 time or 16 times removed. It will be possible to find out, for example whether one descends from the authors of the Foz Côa riverside rock paintings or whether one has Jewish ancestry. This project is also a way of applying scientific knowledge to the interests and needs of the community in general. It is thus within the reach of anyone to find out information about their ancestors and thus know a little more about themselves.
Cheila Almeida
Marta Agostinho (marta-elisa@fm.ul.pt)
Communication and Training Unit
Institute of Molecular Medicine
http://www.imm.ul.pt
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