Editor’s Corner
An
Explosion of Y-STR Markers!
Among genetic
genealogists, it has long been an article of faith that once we could have 100
Y-STR markers available commercially, we would then have the resolution we
needed to really figure out relationships in our surname projects. Well folks, it looks like we just arrived!
With the new 22-marker
panel offered in March by Family Tree DNA (bringing just their own offerings up
to 59 markers), as I count them, we now have available 102 markers! To get close to that many, however, you have
to go to at least three different companies.
DNA Fingerprint (DNAFP) led
the way into the development of new markers during 2005, and they still have
the most markers of any company, plus the most not offered by any other
company. Ethnoancestry
followed in early 2006 with a new 18-marker panel that at the time represented
markers not offered elsewhere. Not to be
outdone, the venerable Family Tree DNA, in March 2006 brought out their new
22-marker panel. So far on the sidelines
as far as new offerings are concerned, DNA Heritage and Relative Genetics,
still offer their 43-marker set.
The question for anyone
wanting to add to the number of markers they have tested is, “How should I go
about testing new markers?” Unfortunately,
the answer is not so simple, unless you simply must have all 102 markers. Then, the answer is simple,
though rather expensive—just buy everything that each company offers.
The problem lies in the
fact that the offerings of all the commercial labs are not mutually
exclusive—there is quite a lot of overlap.
Figuring out how to get the most markers for your money is a challenge.
Let’s start with the 37
markers available from FTDNA (sorry, DNAH, RG, EA, and DNAFP—we have to give
the largest company its due). Once you
have results on those 37, what next? For
some time DNAH has offered a 23-marker “pick your own markers” test. If you ordered that option and included the
11 markers not tested by FTDNA, that would allow you
to raise your total to 48, which was about the most you could get a year ago. Now, there are more options, including getting
10 of those extra 11 markers from DNAFP.
However, at DNAFP, there is a one-time DNA extraction charge, so going
with DNAFP makes the most sense if you plan to buy many more markers than 10.
Beyond the basic set of 48
markers, each of DNAFP, EA, and FTDNA offer a new set of markers. At EA and FTDNA you must buy the whole set,
while the markers can be ordered individually at DNAFP (though you get a small
price break if you order whole panels of about 12 markers). However, as pointed out earlier, there is
some overlap among the offerings from these three companies.
In the new 22-marker panel
from FTDNA, 13 markers are available nowhere else. In the new 18-marker panel from EA, 12 are
available nowhere else. DNAFP has 22
markers available nowhere else. If
you’re serious about getting to 100 markers, you can’t leave out any of these three
sets of new markers. You’ll have to buy
all of them in spite of their overlap.
How much overlap is
there? In the cases of the 22-marker set
from FTDNA and the 18-marker set from EA, seven of the markers appear in both
sets. None of the EA set and only two of
the new FTDNA set overlap with the offerings from DNA Fingerprint.
One fairly efficient way
to get a large number of markers would be to test the FTDNA 59, and then add on
the 30 markers from DNAFP that are not offered at FTDNA. That would bring your total to 89 and would
only involve two companies. If you’ve
already started with the 43 from DNAH or RG, you could order from DNAFP the 27
markers they offer that DNAH doesn’t (bringing your total up to 70) and then add the 18-marker
panel from EA, whose markers do not overlap at all the offerings of DNAH or
DNAFP, for a grand total of 88.
Table 1 (below) shows the commercially available markers
beyond the basic FTDNA-37. Not shown is
DYS425, offered by
With 100 markers, what is
the probability that a mutation will occur in each transmission of the whole
set from one generation to the next?
Unfortunately, we do not know the mutation rates for many of these
markers. If we just assume that the
average mutation rate for all 100 markers is about 0.002, then the probability
of a mutation in one of the 100 markers is about 20% per transmission in the
whole set. That’s probably in the right ballpark.
But, if 100 markers gets us to 20% probability of a mutation per transmission,
look what 250 would do for us—that’s a mutation every other transmission! And, for that matter, why not 500
Editor
Table 1 Y-STR Markers
Available Commercially in Addition
to the FTDNA-37
|
DNA Fingerprint (Markers in panels or
individually) |
Ethnoancestry 18-Marker Panel |
FTDNA 22-Marker Panel |
DNA Heritage,
Relative Genetics |
|
|
Markers Available
at More Than One Company: |
||||
|
DYS441 |
|
|
DYS441 |
|
|
DYS444 |
|
DYS444 |
DYS444 |
|
|
DYS445 |
|
|
DYS445 |
|
|
DYS446 |
|
DYS446 |
DYS446 |
|
|
DYS452 |
|
|
DYS452 |
|
|
DYS461 |
|
|
DYS461 |
|
|
DYS462 |
|
|
DYS462 |
|
|
DYS463 |
|
|
DYS463 |
|
|
DYS635 (C4) |
|
|
DYS635 (C4) |
|
|
GATA-A10 |
|
|
GATA-A10 |
|
|
|
DYS481 |
DYS481 |
|
|
|
|
DYS490 |
DYS490 |
|
|
|
|
DYS531 |
DYS531 |
|
|
|
|
DYS578 |
DYS578 |
|
|
|
|
DYS594 |
DYS594 |
|
|
|
|
DYS641 |
DYS641 |
|
|
|
|
DYF406S1 |
DYF406S1 |
|
|
|
Markers Available
at Only One Company: |
||||
|
22 Markers Unique to
DNAFP |
11 Markers Unique to Ethnoancestry |
13 Markers Unique to FTDNA |
1 Marker Unique to
DNAH, RG |
|
|
DYS413a |
DYS487 |
DYS436 |
GGAAT-1B07 |
|
|
DYS413b |
DYS494 |
DYS472 |
|
|
|
DYS434 |
DYS505 |
DYS492 |
|
|
|
DYS485 |
DYS522 |
DYS511 |
|
|
|
DYS495 |
DYS533 |
DYS520 |
|
|
|
DYS643 |
DYS549 |
DYS534 |
|
|
|
DYS725a |
DYS556 |
DYS537 |
|
|
|
DYS725b |
DYS575 |
DYS557 |
|
|
|
DYS725c |
DYS589 |
DYS565 |
|
|
|
DYS725d |
DYS636 |
DYS572 |
|
|
|
DYS726 |
DYS638 |
DYS590 |
|
|
|
DYF371a |
|
DYF395S1 |
|
|
|
DYF371b |
|
DYF395S2 |
|
|
|
DYF371c |
|
|
|
|
|
DYF371d |
|
|
|
|
|
DYF385S1a |
|
|
|
|
|
DYF385S1b |
|
|
|
|
|
DYF399S1a |
|
|
|
|
|
DYF399S1b |
|
|
|
|
|
DYF399S1c |
|
|
|
|
|
DYF401S1a |
|
|
|
|
|
DYF401S1b |
|
|
|
|