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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2002-08 > 1029446700


From: "John F. Chandler" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Re: GENEALOGY-DNA-D Digest V02 #290
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 17:25 EDT
In-Reply-To: MaryFernS@aol.com message <7a.2a6b6d99.2a737f62@aol.com> of Fri, 26 Jul 2002 22:45:19 -0600


Hello, everybody. I'm back. I see there has been a lot of discussion
in the meantime, so it will take me some time to get caught up.

Mary wrote:
> Dear John C.,
>
> Are you saying that if I got hair ROOTS when I collected my sample, I could
> successfully sample the Y DNA? But if I get hair WITHOUT roots, I could only
> have a mt DNA analysis?

In principle, yes to both. In practice, it might depend on how many
hair roots were included. Success in extracting mtDNA might also
depend on what treatment the hair received while still attached to
the test subject -- heat tends to break down the DNA, and bizarre
shampoos might do funny things, too.

John Chandler

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