A revolutionary method, developed by an international scientific team, is a kind of genetic GPS since, by analyzing DNA, it allows the geographical location of the village where someone's ancestors lived, even 1,000 years ago.
Previous similar "tools" - which make use of so-called "biogeographic algorithms" - were much less accurate, making location errors within a huge radius of 700 kilometers.
The researchers, led by Dr. Eran Elhaik of the University of Sheffield in the UK and Dr. Tatiana Tatarinova of the University of Southern California, who published the relevant publication in the journal "Nature Communications", named their system Geographic Population Structure (so that, intentionally, the initials of the words form the acronym GPS for the phrase Global Positioning System).
The new technique "works" like a satellite navigation system, helping someone not only to find their current home on the map, but to look back into the past and find the home of their distant ancestors.
Until now, scientists could only find where someone's DNA originated with an accuracy of less than 2% or within a radius of 700 kilometers (for Europe, this distance could be the next or next-door country). The new method is 98% more accurate, tracing someone's ancestry down to the village or island level.
The improvement in accuracy, according to the researchers, can help, among other things, in the practice of more personalized medicine, in forensic research and in the study of the origins of disputed populations, such as the Roma and European Jews.
Gene mixing—which is recorded in DNA—occurs when people from two or more previously separate populations interbreed. This process is very common throughout history, mainly as a result of migrations and invasions.
"What we discovered is a way to find not where you were born - that information is on your passport - but where your DNA was formed up to 1,000 years ago.
What is remarkable is that we can now do it with such precision that we can locate the village where your ancestors lived many hundreds of years ago - something that has never been possible before," said Mr. Elchaik.
Demonstrating the technique's capabilities, the researchers analyzed data from 10 villages in Sardinia, Italy, and 20 islands in Oceania.
Scientists were able to "place" a quarter of Sardinia's inhabitants exactly in their village and the rest at a distance of no more than 50 kilometers from their place of origin.
For Oceanian residents, the accuracy was almost 90%, regarding their exact island of origin.
Overall, the genetic GPS correctly places 83% of the world's population in their country of origin. With previous biogeographic methods, the accuracy was in the order of 40% to 45% for Europeans and even lower for non-Europeans.
Tracing one's lineage is a growing hobby in many countries. New genetic "tools" are expected to give a new impetus to this trend. Already, researchers have created a website where genetic GPS is accessible to the general public.
However, one must have previously provided a saliva sample to have their DNA analyzed and then "upload" their genetic profile to the specific website (https://chcb.saban-chla.usc.edu/gps).
Source: tro-ma-ktiko.blogspot.gr
