AncestryByDNA™ and EuroDNA™

DNAPrint®'s genealogy product, ANCESTRYbyDNA™ 2.5, is a pan-chromosomal assay for genetic ancestry.  The test surveys 176 Ancestry Informative Markers (AIMs) to provide an inference of genetic ancestry or heritage.  The AIMs were carefully selected from large-scale screens of the human genome; and are characterized by sequences of DNA that are more prevalent in people from one continent than another. Using complex statistical algorithms, the test can determine with confidence to which of the major bio-geographical ancestry groups, Sub -Saharan African, European, East Asian or Native American, a person belongs, as well as the relative percentages in cases of admixed peoples. It’s a great tool for those individuals or groups interested in more deeply understanding their ancestry and lineage, or for certain people (i.e. some adoptee of mixed heritage) learning about their genetic ancestry.

The EurasianDNA 1.0 product is similar except it measures European sub-ancestry.  “European” ancestry from Ancestrybydna 2.5 actually refers to a type of ancestry shared by people who derived from the fertile crescent of the Middle East some 50,000 years ago and spread to occupy Europe, the Middle East, parts of Eurasia and South Asia.  EurasianDNA 1.0 breaks the European ancestry into 4 groups, reporting individuals’ percentages for each: Northwestern European, Southeastern European, Middle Eastern and South Asian.

EuropeanDNA 2.0, our powerful new product which was launched in June 2007, further elucidates European sub-ancestry using 1,349 European Ancestry Informative Markers (SNP AIMs).  This test reports a customer's proportional basic continental European ancestry: Southeastern Europe (SEE - Armenian, Jewish, Italian and Greek), Iberian (IB -Spanish, Portuguese), Basque (BAS - Spanish/French Pyrenees border), Continental European (CE - German, Irish, English, Netherlands, French, Swiss and some Italian) and North Eastern European (NEE - Polish, Baltic, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian) ancestry. The  EuropeanDNA 2.0 test is by far the most advanced genetic ancestry test yet to be offered to the public, bar none.  It is based on recently published scientific work using DNA chips to compare populations from around the world. The reference for this test is: Bauchet M, McEvoy B, Pearson L, Quillen E, Sarkisian T, Hovhannesyan K, Deka R, Bradley D, Shriver M. 2007.  Measuring European population stratification with microarray genotype data. American Journal of Human Genetics  80(5): 948-956.

This more advanced version of the EurasianDNA 1.0 test is expected to provide greater sensitivity and accuracy, as it involves many more AIM's per test. It will also be considerably more expensive to produce. Why are we improving a product that already is a world's-first technological leap from what was available prior to the human genome project? Some individuals who take ANcestryByDNA™2.5 and EuroasianDNA 1.0 will find interesting, unexpected results and may desire to obtain a second opinion provided by a different, more extensive marker set. Others have very specific questions about their genetic ancestry that the current AncestryByDNA™ 2.5 assay may not be sensitive enough to answer.

AncestryByDNA™