770,000 Saliva Samples Reveal Post-Colonial Population of North America
Ancestry.com announced that the work done by their science team has been published in Nature Communications. 770,000 saliva samples, taken from AncestryDNA customers over the past five years, have been used to create a map of post-colonial America.
The work of Ancestry’s science team has been published in Nature Communications. The title of the study is: “Clustering of 770,000 genomes reveals post-colonial population structure of North America.”
The scientists combined information from the genomes found in 770,000 saliva samples with information in a database of over 20 million genealogical records. The saliva samples came from people of U.S. origin.
The Abstract of the study says: “Despite strides in characterizing human history from genetic polymorphism data, progress in identifying genetic signatures of recent demography are limited. Here we identify very recent fine-scale population structure in North America from a network of over 500 million genetic (identity-by-descent, IBD) connections among 770,000 genotyped individuals of U.S. origin. We detect densely connected clusters within the network and annotate these clusters using a database of over 20 million genealogical records.”
“Recent population patterns captured by IBD clustering include immigrants such as Scandinavians and French Canadians; groups with continental admixtue such as Puerto Ricans; settlers such as the Amish and Applalchains who experienced geographic or cultural isolation; and broad historical trends, including reduced north-south gene flow. Our results yield a detailed historical portrait of North America after European settlement and support substantial genetic heterogeneity in the United States beyond that uncovered by previous studies.”
Ancestry.com explained what this research means for you. The research identified clusters, or genetic communities, of individuals. It also revealed the history of those individuals, including where their ancestors may have lived, where they migrated to and from, what their last names were (and more). Ancestry.com says this means they can identify the genetic communities that an AncestryDNA customer belongs to.
Related Article at FamilyTree.com:
* AncestryDNA Surpasses 3 Million Customers
* 200 Years of Immigration To The U.S.
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