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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2001-01 > 0979015587


From: Bcg <>
Subject: [DNA] Re: GENEALOGY-DNA-D Digest V01 #2
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 22:46:27 -0600
In-Reply-To: <200101042100.f04L0Tq08534@lists5.rootsweb.com>


Hi All

Some questions have arisen lately about the non-standard nature of the
alleles reported by Family Tree DNA . I appreciate these questions as they
give me an opportunity to answer the questions and provoke, I'm sure, a
lively round of exchanges which will be to the betterment of us all.

Our studies reporting of the allele results is somewhat non--standard. In
fact there is no standard for Y chromosome testing, which I expect is some
years away. Let me explain it this way:

On the female side, a Standard was set about 20 years ago. It is variously
known as either the Anderson Sequence, or more commonly know as the
Cambridge Reference Sequence. That standard is tested by people all
over, and used for crime labs, genealogy, medical testing, etc.

There is no standard in testing the Y chromosome, the research is just too
new, and scientists are testing today the very locations on the Y
chromosomes that will produce the Cambridge Standard of the future. Until
all the useful Y chromosomes are discovered, quantified and accepted as a
standard, the issue will NOT be comparisons between labs due to a numbering
mechanism, but rather between labs at all, in any practical sense.

Our company has previously released the DYS #'s for the 6 markers (of our
12) that have been placed in the public domain by Dr. Hammer or
others. The rest of our alleles will be released as further articles are
published that use them, with the intent being to release all current Loci
as we add new markers being researched now.

Quite frankly let me posse a few questions... Given that the scientific
world is publish or perish, would you not agree that labs doing nascent
technological research would consider their in-house discovered loci to
have some, perhaps great, value?

If so, can we smartly assume that Loci freely released for genetic testing,
before they have been "properly promoted" by the University lab, has
"great" or even "significant" value to science or its researchers? Or is
the marker just another location on the Y with little or no diversity?

When someone is tested on the Y by Family Tree DNA we currently compare you
with our database of Western Europeans...we are willing to release the
repeat information for the 6 loci mentioned above to any customer who asks
so they can access the ethnic calculator at:

https://www.agenus.com/ClassA/ClassB/ychrome.cfm

Given the above , do you want to have a certificate that reads,
and/or talk to potential relatives by using a string of 1 digit or 2 digit
numbers. 4, 7, 5, 8, 5 or 12, 21, 12, 16, 12. That's about as non
standard as we are. To be clear our numbers are reported on a scale to
allow us to test your Loci with the newest markers available. When the
opportunity presents itself for us to have top notch research and those
alleles in the public domain we will freely provide the crossover table to
allow all who have tested with us to access any Y calculator on the
market. Until them we will continue to offer the tightest commercially
available Y Chromosome test on the market and the genealogical comparison
that our test offers.




Best Regards
Bennett Greenspan
President
http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com

The World's only website dedicated to Genealogy by Genetics

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