Re: DNA clue to presidential puzzle: more African DNA in UK

on Fri, 09 Feb 2007 20:00:49 GMT, Roger Lee Bagula
<rlbagulatftn@xxxxxxxxx> sez:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6332545.stm
BBC NEWS
DNA clue to presidential puzzle
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

DNA tests carried out on two British men have shed light on a mystery
surrounding the ancestry of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president.

In the 1990s, DNA was taken from male relatives of Jefferson to see if
he fathered a son with one of his slaves.

They found the president had a rare genetic signature found mainly in
the Middle East and Africa, calling into question his claim of Welsh
ancestry.

But this DNA type has now been found in two Britons with the Jefferson
surname.

[...]


Thomas Jefferson's haplogroup - shared with the two men from Britain -
is known as K2.

K2 makes up about 7% of the Y chromosome types found in Somalia, Oman,
Egypt and Iraq. It has now been found at low frequencies in France,
Spain, Portugal and Britain.

[...]

The haplogroup has probably been present for centuries in the
"indigenous" population of western Europe, says Professor Jobling, and
is not exclusive to the Middle East and Africa.

Paternity case

It could have been introduced to Europe by the first modern humans to
colonise the continent 40,000 years ago.

Another theory concerns the Phoenicians, an ancient maritime trading
culture that spread out across the Mediterranean from their home in what
is now Lebanon. K2 is relatively common in Lebanon, leading to
suggestions that European K2s may be descendents of these ancient traders.

Or possibly, the Jeffersons are descended from a Mr. Al-Jaffar who
attached himself to the crusaders returning from the middle east...


--
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vincent@triumf[munge].ca Pete Vincent
Disclaimer: all I know I learned from reading Usenet.
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