Ancestry Geno 2

The Story about My Ancestry

According to Geno 2.0 Test

 

Note:  The story about my ancestry presented here is stitched together on March 6, 2013, by cut-and-paste from the Genographic Project website about my Geno 2.0 test results.  The story may change with new findings.  “You” or “your” in this summary refers to me.  Some of the maps are not included here.  The “Heatmaps” for my Haplogroups (M122 for my paternal line and M7 for my maternal line) represent the frequencies of my haplogroups at a given location.  The yellow color represents about 10% to the red about 80% of the frequencies.  These maps do not go into my paternal sub-group of O-F871 and my maternal sub-group of M7b5.

 

After an introduction, the test results are divided into three sections:  (1) “Who I am” as a whole, combining all my ancestors, including my ancestors of last six generations and my ancient paternal and maternal ancestors;  (2) my direct paternal ancestry;  (3) my direct maternal ancestry.

 

 

Human Migrations

 

 

Your chapter of the human story is ready to be told. The results of your Genographic Project test reveal information about your distant ancestors, including how and when they moved out of Africa and the various populations they interacted with over thousands of years of migration. How do we do this? By tracking markers—random, naturally occurring, changes in your DNA. The mutations act as a beacon and can be mapped over thousands of years (on the Y-chromosome for paternal lines and mitochondrial DNA for maternal lines). When geneticists identify such a marker, they try to figure out when it first occurred, and in which geographic region of the world. In the report below, you will see the group with which you share genetic markers on your paternal and/or maternal sides. This is called your “haplogroup,” and is expressed in numbers and letters.

 

 

INTRODUCTION TO YOUR STORY

 

We will now take you back through the stories of your distant ancestors and show how the movements of their descendants gave rise to your lineage.

Each segment on the map above represents the migratory path of successive groups that eventually coalesced to form your branch of the tree. We start with the marker for your oldest ancestor, and walk forward to more recent times, showing at each step the line of your ancestors who lived up to that point.

What is a marker? Each of us carries DNA that is a combination of genes passed from both our mother and father, giving us traits that range from eye color and height to athleticism and disease susceptibility. As part of this process, the Y-chromosome is passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation down a purely male line. Mitochondrial DNA, on the other hand, is passed from mothers to their children, but only their daughters pass it on to the next generation. It traces a purely maternal line.

The DNA is passed on unchanged, unless a mutation—a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change—occurs. The mutation, known as a marker, acts as a beacon; it can be mapped through generations because it will be passed down for thousands of years.

When geneticists identify such a marker, they try to figure out when it first occurred, and in which geographic region of the world. Each marker is essentially the beginning of a new lineage on the family tree of the human race. Tracking the lineages provides a picture of how small tribes of modern humans in Africa tens of thousands of years ago diversified and spread to populate the world.

By looking at the markers you carry, we can trace your lineage, ancestor by ancestor, to reveal the path they traveled as they moved out of Africa. Our story begins with your earliest ancestor. Who were they, where did they live, and what is their story? Click "Next" to begin.

 

 

Section I:  “Who Am I?”

 

 

We are all more than the sum of our parts, but the results below offer some of the most dramatic and fascinating information in your Geno 2.0 test. In this section, we display your affiliations with a set of nine world regions. This information is determined from your entire genome so we’re able to see both parents’ information, going back six generations. Your percentages reflect both recent influences and ancient genetic patterns in your DNA due to migrations as groups from different regions mixed over thousands of years. Your ancestors also mixed with ancient, now extinct hominid cousins like Neanderthals in Europe and the Middle East or the Denisovans in Asia. If you have a very mixed background, the pattern can get complicated quickly! Use the reference population matches below to help understand your particular result.

 

  This component of your ancestry is found at highest frequencies in the populations of northeast Asia—people from Japan, China and Mongolia in our reference populations. It is also found at lower frequencies in southeast Asia and India, where it likely arrived in the past 10,000 years with the expansion of rice farmers coming from further north. Interestingly, it is also found at a frequency of 5-10% in the Finns, likely introduced by the migrations of the Saami people from Siberia into Finland over the past 5,000 years.


69% Northeast Asian and 31% Southeast Asian.

 

Modern day indigenous populations around the world carry particular blends of these regions. We compared your DNA results to the reference populations we currently have in our database and estimated which of these were most similar to you in terms of the genetic markers you carry. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you belong to these groups or are directly from these regions, but that these groups were a similar genetic match and can be used as a guide to help determine why you have a certain result. Remember, this is a mixture of both recent (past six generations) and ancient patterns established over thousands of years, so you may see surprising regional percentages.

 

In comparison, the population of Beijing, China, is 72% Northeast Asian and 28% Southeast Asian.  The 72% Northeast Asian and 28% Southeast Asian percentages are representative of migrations in East Asia, with the Northeast Asian component likely coming from the earliest settlers in eastern Siberia and northern China, and the Southeast Asian component reflecting mixing with groups that originated further south.

 

In comparison, Japanese population is 75% Northeast Asian and 25% Southeast Asian.  The 75% Northeast Asian and 25% Southeast Asian percentages are representative of migrations in East Asia, with the Northeast Asian component likely coming from the earliest settlers in eastern Siberia and northern China. The Southeast Asian component reflects mixing with groups that originated further south.

 

When our ancestors first migrated out of Africa around 60,000 years ago, they were not alone. At that time, at least two other species of hominid cousins walked the Eurasian landmass: Neanderthals and Denisovans. Most non-Africans are about 2% Neanderthal. The Denisovan component of your Geno 2.0 results is more experimental, as we are still working to determine the best way to assess the percentage Denisovan ancestry you carry. The evolution of this data is another way you are actively involved in helping advance knowledge of anthropological genetics! 

Your Hominid Ancestry:  1.3% Neanderthal and 2.7% Denisovan

 

 

Section II:  The Paternal Lineage

 

 

Paternal Heatmap for M122 Haplogroup

 

 

The Haplogroups of Your Paternal Line:

M42 -> M168 -> M89 -> P128 -> M214 -> P186 -> P197 -> M122 -> O-F871

 

The common direct paternal ancestor of all men alive today was born in Africa around 140,000 years ago. He was neither the first human male nor the only male alive in his time. He was the only male whose direct lineage is present in current generations. Most men, including your direct paternal ancestors, trace their ancestry to one of this man’s descendants.

Your branch of this lineage took part in the second wave of migration out-of-Africa to Asia. Your ancestors traveled to Southeast Asia. Some continued north into East Asia. The majority of these men traveled inland across what is now the south of China. From inland China, some traveled back toward the west into the northeast of the Indian subcontinent.

 

BRANCH: M42

AGE: ABOUT 75,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: AFRICA

 

The common direct paternal ancestor of all men alive today was born in Africa around 140,000 years ago. Dubbed “Y-chromosome Adam” by the popular press, he was neither the first human male nor the only man alive in his time. He was, though, the only male whose Y-chromosome lineage is still around today.  All men, including your direct paternal ancestors, trace their ancestry to one of this man’s descendants. The oldest Y-chromosome lineages in existence, belonging to the A branch of the tree, are found only in African populations.

Around 75,000 years ago, the BT branch of the Y-chromosome tree was born, defined by many genetic markers, including M42. The common ancestor of most men living today, some of this man’s descendants would begin the journey out of Africa, to India and the Middle East. Small groups would eventually reach the Americas. Others would settle in Europe, and some from this line remained near their ancestral homeland in Africa.

Individuals from this line in Africa often practice cultural traditions that resemble those of their distant ancestors. For example, they often live in traditional hunter-gatherer societies. These include the Mbuti and Biaka Pygmies of central Africa, as well as Tanzania’s Hadza.

As M42-bearing populations migrated around the globe, they picked up additional markers on their Y-chromosomes. Today, there are no known BT individuals without these additional markers.


BRANCH: M168

AGE: ABOUT 70,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: AFRICA/ASIA

 

As humans left Africa, they migrated across the globe in a web of paths that spread out like the branches of a tree, each limb of migration identifiable by a marker in our DNA. For male lineages, the M168 branch was one of the first to leave the African homeland.

Moving outward from Africa and along the coastline, members of this lineage were some of the earliest settlers in Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Some from this line would even travel over the land bridge to reach the Americas.

The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in your lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania.  Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 70,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.

But why would man have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? The first migrants likely ventured across the Bab-al Mandeb strait, a narrow body of water at the southern end of the Red Sea, crossing into the Arabian Peninsula soon after M168 originated—perhaps 65,000 years ago. These beachcombers would make their way rapidly to India and Southeast Asia, following the coastline in a gradual march eastward.  By 50,000 years ago, they had reached Australia. These were the ancestors of today’s Australian Aborigines.

It is also likely that a fluctuation in climate may have contributed to your ancestors’ exodus out of Africa. The African ice age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. Around 50,000 years ago, though, the ice sheets of the northern hemisphere began to melt, introducing a short period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa and the Middle East. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to a savanna, the animals hunted by your ancestors expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands.

Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and the animals they hunted, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined. In addition to a favorable change in climate, around this same time there was a great leap forward in modern humans’ intellectual capacity. Many scientists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early human species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn’t been able to earlier, all allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and replace other hominids such as the Neanderthals.

 

BRANCH: M89

AGE: AROUND 50,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: SOUTH ASIA OR WEST ASIA

 

The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. This man was born around 50,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.

The first people to leave Africa likely followed a coastal route that eventually ended in Australia. Your ancestors followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East and beyond, and were part of the second great wave of migration out of Africa.

Beginning about 40,000 years ago, the climate shifted once again and became colder and more arid. Drought hit Africa and the grasslands reverted to desert, and for the next 20,000 years, the Saharan Gateway was effectively closed. With the desert impassable, your ancestors had two options: remain in the Middle East, or move on. Retreat back to the home continent was not an option.

While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of wild game through what is now modern-day Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia.

These semi-arid grass-covered plains formed an ancient “superhighway” stretching from eastern France to Korea. Your ancestors, having migrated north out of Africa into the Middle East, then traveled both east and west along this Central Asian superhighway. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country.

Today, geneticists have found the lineage in 1 to 2 percent of Pakistani and Indian populations. However, it is about 4 percent of some Austro-Asiatic-language-family-speaking groups in India. It is about 9 percent of some Dravidian-language-family-speaking groups in India, and it is 9 to 10 percent of male lineages in Sri Lanka. In Borneo, it is about 5 percent of the population. In Malaysia, it is about 6 percent of the population.

 

BRANCH: P128

AGE: ABOUT 45,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: SOUTH ASIA

 

The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to P128, a marker found in more than half of all non-Africans alive today. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in the Middle East or Central Asia.

The descendants of P128 migrated to the east and north, picking up additional markers on their Y-chromosomes. This lineage is the parent of several major branches on the Y-chromosome tree: O, the most common lineage in East Asia; R, the major European Y-chromosome lineage; and Q, the major Y-chromosome lineage in the Americas. These descendant branches went on to settle the rest of Asia, the Americas, and Europe; many others traveled to Southeast Asia.

Today, P128 individuals lacking these additional markers are rare in most populations, and are most commonly seen in Oceanian and Australian Aboriginal populations.

 

BRANCH: M214

AGE: ABOUT 35,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: CENTRAL ASIA

 

This branch marks another major turning point in your ancestors’ journey. The founder of this lineage was a nomad in the time of the Paleolithic.

His descendants founded two major descendant branches. One would travel north and settle East Asia through Siberia. Some from this line would eventually turn back west and travel to Scandinavia. The second of the two branches would travel another road across South Asia. It too would eventually reach East Asia.

 

BRANCH: P186

AGE: 28,000 – 41,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: SOUTHEAST ASIA

 

Groups containing this lineage traveled along the coastline of Asia into Southeast Asia. From there, some from this lineage continued north into East Asia. The majority of these men traveled inland across what is now the south of China. Thus, this came to be the highest frequency lineage in the region. From inland China, some traveled back toward the west into the northeast of the Indian subcontinent.

Today, geneticists have found this lineage at varying frequencies in South Asian populations. It is about 23 percent of the overall Indian male population. However, in the northeast the frequency reaches about 80 percent. In Japan, its frequency is between 47 and 65 percent. In Korea, it is between 70 and 82 percent of the male population. It is between 69 and 86 percent of male lineages in Han population groups.

 

BRANCH: P197

AGE: 21,000 – 38,500 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: EAST ASIA

 

Today, members of this lineage and its descendant branches are present in East Asia and Southeast Asia. In the north, it is 18 percent of the Han Zibo. Its highest frequencies are in the people of southern China. It is present in the Han Yunnan (20 percent), Tujia (26 percent), Naxi (6 percent), Dai (10 percent), and the Yao Guangxi (13 percent).

Note: This branch is not accompanied by a major movement on the map, and research on this branch is continuing.

 

BRANCH: M122

AGE: 34,000 – 49,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: EAST ASIA

 

This man was born in the Paleolithic and his earliest descendants traveled across what is modern China. Then about 10,000 years ago when the Earth was warming after the last glacial maximum, some from this lineage entered the culture of farming that would spread across Asia. These early rice farmers experienced a population boom that helped spread this lineage across China.

Today, this branch and its descendant branches are common in Han Chinese (57 percent) and Polynesians (32 percent).

  

 

Section III:  The Maternal Lineage

 

 

Maternal Heatmap for M7 Haplogroup

 

The Haplogroups of Your Maternal Line

L3 -> M -> M7 -> M7b5

 

The common direct maternal ancestor to all women alive today was born in East Africa around 180,000 years ago. Though not the only woman alive at the time, hers is the only line to survive into current generations.

From East Africa, groups containing this lineage spread across Africa. Between 60 and 70 thousand years ago, some groups moved from Africa to Asia. Your line traces to one of these groups.  Traveling across Asia, some members of your branch of this lineage settled there. Other groups continued along a southern route to Southeast Asia and Australia.

 

BRANCH: L3

AGE: 70,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: EAST AFRICA

 

This woman’s descendants would eventually account for both out-of-Africa maternal lineages, significant population migrations in Africa, and even take part in the Atlantic Slave Trade related dispersals from Africa.

The common direct maternal ancestor to all women alive today was born in East Africa around 180,000 years ago. Dubbed “Mitochondrial Eve” by the popular press, she represents the root of the human family tree. Eve gave rise to two descendant lineages known as L0 and L1’2’3’4’5’6, characterized by a different set of genetic mutations their members carry.

Current genetic data indicates that indigenous people belonging to these groups are found exclusively in Africa. This means that, because all humans have a common female ancestor, and because the genetic data shows that Africans are the oldest groups on the planet, we know our species originated there.

Eventually, L1’2’3’4’5’6 gave rise to L3 in East Africa. It is a similar story: an individual underwent a mutation to her mitochondrial DNA, which was passed onto her children. The children were successful, and their descendants ultimately broke away from L1’2’3’4’5’6, eventually separating into a new group called L3.

While L3 individuals are found all over Africa, L3 is important for its movements north. Your L3 ancestors were significant because they are the first modern humans to have left Africa, representing the deepest branches of the tree found outside of that continent.

From there, members of this group went in a few different directions. Many stayed on in Africa, dispersing to the west and south.  Some L3 lineages are predominant in many Bantu-speaking groups who originated in west-central Africa, later dispersing throughout the continent and spreading this L3 lineage from Mali to South Africa.  Today, L3 is also found in many African-Americans.

Other L3 individuals, your ancestors, kept moving northward, eventually leaving the African continent completely. These people gave rise to two important haplogroups that went on to populate the rest of the world.

Why would humans have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors’ exodus out of Africa.

The African Ice Age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. Around 50,000 years ago the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to savanna, the animals your ancestors hunted expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and plentiful game northward across this Saharan Gateway, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined.


BRANCH: M

AGE: ABOUT 50,000 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: ASIA OR AFRICA


Your next signpost ancestor is the woman whose descendants formed haplogroup M. Haplogroup M comprises one of two groups that were created from L3.

One of these two groups, haplogroup N, moved north out of Africa and left the continent across the Sinai Peninsula, in present-day Egypt. Faced with the harsh desert conditions of the Sahara, their ancestors likely followed the Nile basin, which would have proved a reliable water and food supply in spite of the surrounding desert and its frequent sandstorms. The ancient members of haplogroup N spawned many sub-lineages that went on to populate much of the rest of the globe. They are found throughout Asia, Europe, India, and the Americas.

Your haplogroup, M, constitutes the other group that split off from L3, and gave rise to the first wave of modern humans to make a successful exodus from Africa. These people likely left the continent across the Horn of Africa, where a narrow span of water between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden separates the East African coastline from the Arabian Peninsula at Bab-el-Mandeb. The short ten miles would have been easily navigable for humans possessing early maritime technologies. This crossing constituted the start of a long coastal migration eastward across the Middle East and southern Eurasia, eventually reaching all the way to Australia and Polynesia.

Haplogroup M is considered an east Eurasian lineage, as it is found at high frequencies east of the Arabian Peninsula. Members of this group are virtually absent in the Levant (a coastal region in what is now Lebanon), though they are present at higher frequencies in the south-Arabian Peninsula at around 15 percent. Because its age is estimated to be around 50,000 years, members of this group were likely among the first humans to leave Africa, and they likely did it heading east. Haplogroup M is found in East Africa, though at much lower frequencies than its subgroup M1. It gives the appearance of a more recent age in eastern Africa than in Asia which is likely the result of smaller populations in Africa, which would have reduced genetic diversity and would therefore appear more recent.

Your haplogroup is prevalent among populations living in the southern parts of Pakistan and northwest India, where it constitutes around 30 to 50 percent of the mitochondrial gene pool, depending on the population. Conversely, the M haplogroup is absent or rarely found amongst people living west of the Indus Valley, and is found at low frequencies in the Central Asian populations, around 10 to 15 percent. The wide distribution and greater genetic diversity east of Indus Valley indicates that these haplogroup M-bearing individuals are the legacy of the first inhabitants of southwestern Asia. These people underwent important expansions during the Paleolithic, and the fact that some East Asian haplogroup M lineages match those found in Central Asia indicates much more recent (i.e., not founder) mixture into the area from the east.

Haplogroup M has several sub-branches which exhibit some geographic specificity. Subgroup M1 is found at high frequency in East Africa, at around 20 percent in many populations. Because haplogroup M itself is almost entirely absent from the region, M1 individuals likely represent migrations back into the continent from the Arabian Peninsula after people had left Africa. M2-M6 are characteristic Indian sub-groups. Haplogroup M7 is distributed across the southern part of East Asia, and two of its own daughter-groups, M7a and M7b2, are representative of Japanese and Korean populations, respectively. M7 individuals reach frequency in southern China and Japan of around 15 percent, and are found at lower frequencies in Mongolia. The old age of this branch indicates a pre-Jomon contribution to the mitochondrial gene pool in those areas.


BRANCH: M7

AGE: 54,800 ± 13,400 YEARS AGO

LOCATION OF ORIGIN: EAST ASIA

 

Traveling along the coast, groups containing women from this lineage settled across modern-day China. Some ventured to the coastal islands. They settled in Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Note: This branch is not accompanied by a major movement on the map, and research on this branch is continuing.

 

© Sung-Peng Hsu 2011