Michelles London Life

Funky Science - Tuesday, September 27, 2005 (old post)

Recently I heard about mitochondrial sequencing for the first time. Charlotte told me about Bryan Sykes who is a professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford. He wrote a book called ‘The Seven Daughters of Eve’.

Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother and does not show paternal characteristics. This means that brothers and sisters will have the same mitochondrial DNA type as their mother, as will any relative linked through the female line.

Mitochondrial chromosomes don’t change at all when being passed down through the generations, so my mitochondria is identical to that of my mother, grandmother, aunties, great grandmother, great great great great grandmother etc all the way back to the beginning. The scientists say that the strands mutate about every 20,000 years or so, but that they can track the mutations.

So anyway, Sykes has identified 7 different mitochondrial ‘clans’ in Europe and has discovered about 95% of the European population can be traced back to 7 women. The idea is that if you were to have your mitochondria sequenced they would be able to tell you which ‘daughter of Eve’ your ancestors came from. He has named these original 7 women Ursula, Tara, Helena, Katrine, Velda, Xenia and Jasmine. And, he says that each of these 7 women originated from just one woman.

There are heaps and heaps of studies done based on this research and scientists around the world have so far discovered about 36 different clans. They’ve even been to New Zealand to see what clan the Maori originated from.

“The analysis begins from the premise that about 150,000 years ago there was a single human female, who Sykes named ‘Eve’, from whom we are all directly descended. As human DNA diversified and the population grew, particular strains of DNA developed and these have been identified by scientists and divided into 36 clans.

The mitochondrial (female) and Y (male) chromosomes continue through the generations unchanged, providing stable havens where distinctive DNA sequences and markers can settle and take root, first within families, then, as those families expand, within clans and ethnic groups. This provides rich material for reconstructing the major migrations and dispersals of our past, but using it to trace the ancestral origins of individuals is less precise.”

They say that potentially there were more clans that could have been ‘daughtered out’ or wiped out of existence because no female children were born.Sykes has also started a business called ‘Oxford Ancestors’ where you can go to pay to have your mitochondria sequenced. I think it would be really interesting to know your origins. I have no idea where my mother’s family comes from, I know my dad’s side is Irish and my mothers dad’s side is Polish, but nobody seems to have any idea where the females came from, so it makes me wonder… And once you know that beginning, you could look into the history of the area and see what likely happened to your ancestors.There is a really interesting article here about what one woman found out about where she came from. Most people would not get this kind of detail though, it seems to be much more ambiguous for the average person.

posted by Michelle @ 2:03 PM

6 Comments:
At 2:42 PM, September 28, 2005, Legion said...
Oh my goodness. Those silly christians knew what they were talking about. Dang. How are we going to get avoid admitting we were wrong? Onward to the Summer Country! Let no skeptical rationalist materialist scientists, or any other powers of hell deter us, for we are victors in Christ alone! Oh, sorry, that sounded awfully closeminded. If you want to be offended or entertained and edified, investigate my blog: thecaveblog.blogspot.com.

At 3:00 PM, September 28, 2005, Michelle said...
I don't know about that, i still believe in evolution. Just because some scientist named the supposed first female homosapien he's managed to track down Eve doesn't mean she was created by God out of Adam's rib bone eh? Maybe her real name was 'grunt, snuffle'.Hahaha, i'll definitely check out your blog.

At 9:34 AM, September 30, 2005, Lrav said...
Very interesting stuff. If you do some searching around on the topic, one of the key concepts is that the Mitochondrial Eve (ME for short) lived with a whole bunch of other people and certainly wasn't the biblical Eve or anything close to it. And it most certainly does not disprove evolution at all, it is in support of the single-origins evolution theory.Think about it, when this ME was alive, there were a whole lot of other people around with her, and they would have had another ME that they all shared, that was alive long before them.legion, what I don't like about the way you put your argument forward is that you lash out at people who don't think the same as you. I know it must be frustrating having your belief constantly attacked and researched against, but it is still better to try for the high ground.This particular scientific fact is against the biblical view, the details behind the media stories are starkly clear.

At 7:47 PM, October 06, 2005, alex said...
Bonjour Michelle! C'est Alex ici, checking out your blogs and really enjoying them. Did you read in the paper today that two high ranking catholic bishops have published a teaching document that says that the bible shouldn't be read as historical fact, and that stories such as adam & eve aren't historically accurate! How open minded of them. They might convert me yet ...

At 8:33 AM, October 07, 2005, Michelle said...
Bonjour Alex!No i didn't see that in the paper, but that's great news! Maybe the stodgy old buggers are finally heading onto this century. I'll have to see if i can find an article online and post a link to it.See you next Thursday :-)

At 8:25 AM, October 13, 2005, Michelle said... Here is an online link to the article about the Catholic Bishops that released a teaching document saying that some parts of the bible are not true.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.htmlIt's quite an interesting read, and at the bottom it lista some parts under 'True' and 'False' headings. They say that the story of creation is not to be taken literally, but that the virgin birth is.

posted by ... @ 2:28 PM