The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Database
The Genographic Project is probably the largest genetic genealogy project in the world. For $99, the project will sequence seqments of either your mtDNA or your Y chromosome for addition into their publicly available database. The goal of the project, with ten research centers around the world, is to “map humanity’s genetic journey through the ages,” and to “address anthropological questions on a global scale using genetics as a tool.” There has been a huge response to this project, and they just released their first research paper using the results they have collected to date:
“Family Tree DNA is proud to announce that the first paper resulting from data collected through the Genographic Project has been published today at the PLOS GENETICS. “The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Database†can be found at http://genetics.plosjournals.org and it will be uploaded to the Family Tree DNA public library as well.
The paper resulted from the collaboration of the Genographic Project Scientific Team, Family Tree DNA Genomics Research Center, and the IBM Data Analytics Research Group.â€
Results
This paper is all about the mtDNA sequences they have obtained through the project. In the first 18 months of the project, they have collected an amazing 78,590 mtDNA genotypes!! In the paper, they describe their genotyping parameters (i.e. how they go about sequencing the mtDNA), the frequency of each haplogroup in the database (for instance, 38.2% of the database is Haplogroup H!), and their attempt to identify any potential Neaderthal contribution to the database (there isn’t any).
The researchers also list a few goals for the future of the project and the scientific community as a whole:
“First, as sequencing procedures have become more efficient and stretches of 600 bp can easily be obtained, we suggest standardizing the reported ‘‘HVS-I’’ range to include positions 16024–16569 as presented herein.â€
So what is the take-home message from this new paper? That the Genographic Database is a valuable, standardized database for geneticists, genealogists, anthropologists, and other -ists. The last paragraph of the study states: “In summary, we report both data and new classification methods developed using by far the largest standardized mtDNA database yet created, and detail the logistic, scientific, and public considerations unique to the Genographic Project. Most importantly, we return to the public a database made possible by their enthusiastic participation in the Genographic Project.”
Here’s Figure 4 from the project, a phylogenetic tree of mtDNA haplogroups, with the number of each haplogroup represented in the database (click it to get a larger version):
(Note that PLoS uses the Creative Commons Attribution License for all their papers, meaning that the public is free to, among other things, “copy, distribute, display, and perform the workâ€, as well as “make derivative works,†as long as the user gives the original author and source credit. Thus, the above figure comes from:
The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Database Behar DM, Rosset S, Blue-Smith J, Balanovsky O, Tzur S, et al. PLoS Genetics Vol. 3, No. 6, e104 doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030104
This is, of course, another great reason to love and support open-access journals such as PLoS.)
May 19th, 2013 at 2:03 am
using these samples, which were accepted and maintained under perfectly legitimate procedures, for the benefit of mankind. Legitimate for us maybe, but not necessarily for the Karitiana people.========== From Blaine Bettinger’s The Genetic Genealogist: The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Database: An overview of– The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Database. Behar DM, Rosset S, Blue-Smith J, Balanovsky O, Tzur S, et al. PLoS Genetics Vol. 3, No. 6, e104. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030104
June 29th, 2007 at 10:27 am
[...] More on the Genographic Project results from Blaine at The Genetic Genealogist. [...]
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:31 am
[...] The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA … By Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D. For $99, the project will sequence seqments of either your mtDNA or your Y chromosome for addition into their publicly available database. The goal of the project, with ten research centers around the world, is to “map humanity’s … The Genetic Genealogist – http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com [...]
July 4th, 2007 at 5:26 am
[...] from The Genographic Project Mitochondrial DNA Databaselinked to by 2 added on Fri 29th Jun 07 The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Database linked to by 1 posted to The Genetic Genealogist on Fri 29th Jun 07The Genographic Project is [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 12:21 am
[...] to learn more. … http://www.smgf.org/pages/sorensondatabase.jspx [Found on Yahoo! Search] 2. The Genographic Project Public Participation Mitochondrial DNA Database " The Gene… … Genographic Project is probably the largest genetic genealogy project in the world. … The [...]
September 1st, 2009 at 10:38 pm
I would like to take the test – How do I?
Where do I go OR How do I find the DNA test???
September 1st, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Eve – The Genographic Project is online at https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html. You’ll find a link to “Buy the Kit” on the right side of the site.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
[...] ^ http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2007/06/29/the-genographic-project-public-participation-mitocho… [...]
September 30th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
[...] ^ http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2007/06/29/the-genographic-project-public-participation-mitocho… [...]
March 24th, 2011 at 4:07 am
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