I'll Take Cheese Sauce with that Ice Cream, Please.

Move over, Wolverine. I am a mutant also. I learned in passing yesterday that as much as 90% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is lactose intolerant as adults. Due to a freak genetic mutation I and up to 95% of the population of Northern Europe can digest the sugars in milk as adults. I would have preferred flying or even really big crime-fighting claws, but let me tell you about the milk thing.

About a month ago I participated in a beta-test of Ancestry.com's new DNA program. Unlike the CSI cheek swabs, I had to spit into a sterile cup to get my DNA sample. Turns out spit is composed of liquid and foam and the foam doesn't count for DNA. By the time I was done I had a new appreciation of camels who can spit even in desert conditions. Anyway Ancestry has previously offered testing of mitochondrial DNA, the kind that is passed from mother to mother without mixing and Y-chromosome testing. Both were expensive. The new beta-test looks at a very large number of DNA markers to try to find out where ancestors came from. Since traditional historic genealogy shows that 90% or more of my ancestors back to 1500 come from Great Britain, I thought that the genetic results would be similar. However, the DNA test can "see" ancestors going back "thousands" of years.

So what did I find out besides my eligibility to be in the next X-man film? My DNA is 16% Scandinavian, 37% British Isles, and 47% Northern European. As more results come in from other people in the Ancestry program, these percentages are likely to change. Surprisingly, there are already people in the database who have an 80% or higher British Isles score so there is some leakage in my family tree somewhere-probably my great-grand mother who I blogged about recently who may have Dutch heritage. At this point I don't know what genetic markers separate the three groups although there are some dizzily complex indications in Wikipedia based on older Y-DNA testing. The different area designations check back to mutations in a last common ancestor. The current information from Ancestry is general and relatively conservative only suggesting common ancestors back to 8,000 years ago. Older studies suggest that some genetic markers in Europe may trace back to common ancestors as long ago as 30,000 years in the past. It seems that these three groups have a lot in common like a very high percentage of the mutant milk drinking gene.

Another interesting thing that comes with the Ancestry report is other members who potentially share common ancestors. You've seen it on CSI: genetic testing proves two people are long lost siblings. Or in my case long long long lost 4th to 6th cousins with 95% certainty. I've got two of those through my British genes. My other backgrounds yield only 5th to 8th cousins. Fourth cousins share one (or more) great-great-great-grandparents. Claims have been made that almost everyone in America falls into that 5th-8th range which means so far that part of the test hasn't yielded much useful information.

Old fashioned genealogy brings in all the complexities of historical research. Genetic genealogy now adds all the complexities of a new science. Somewhere in the overlap is one answer to the question of who we are-the nature part in the old nature versus nurture argument. I just may need something stronger than a glass of milk to sort it all out. Maybe Professor Xavier can help at X-Man Headquarters.