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What is the DNAPrint Test?

Family Tree DNA is pleased to inform that after being recognized by DNAPrint as the leading molecular genealogy testing company in the United States, it has signed an agreement with DNAPrint Genomics Inc. to market and distribute its original ANCESTRYbyDNA 2.0 or DNAPrint test.

Note(12/15/03): Because it is the only test of its kind in the world, our customers have expressed a strong interest, quantified in their robust ordering of this product, in having access to purchasing the DNA Print test through FTDNA. As you all have come to know, when our customers speak, we listen. Therefore, we have until now and are, at present, continuing to offer the DNA Print test.
DNA Print is currently undergoing a transitional process, during which time the company has formulated a new way of expressing the results of the test. DNA Print Genomics, the company that created and developed the test, has communicated to us that this refinement will result in a more accurate and precise presentation of one's ethnic makeup as described by the DNA Print test.
This process has resulted in considerable delays, currently ongoing, for some of our customers who are awaiting test results. Therefore, while DNA Print has assured us that they are in the last stages of finalizing their new results format, and consequently that the results for those tests should be completed in the very near future, we cannot at this time say for certain that more delays, possibly significant ones, will not occur. This applies both for people contemplating ordering the test, and for our customers who currently have results pending.

What is the DNAPrint or BioGeographical Ancestry Test?

DNAPrint or BioGeographical Ancestry (BGA) is a simple and objective description of the Ancestral origins of a person, in terms of the major population groups. (e.g. Native American, East Asian, Indo-European, sub-Saharan African, etc.) BGA estimates are able to represent the mixed nature of many people and populations today. In the US, as in many other countries across the globe, there has been extensive mixing among populations that had initially been separate. In the fields of human genetics and anthropology, this mixing is referred to as admixture. BGA estimates can also be understood as individual admixture proportions, which take the form of a series of percentages that add to 100%.
The test provides information on the proportions of ancestry on the continental level for most continents, Native American, Indo-European (which includes European, Middle Eastern and South Asian groups such as Indians), African, but we distinguish ancestries within Asia and the Pacific Rim by adding East Asian, (which includes the Pacific Islanders) as an additional group. For example, a person in question may be found to have: 75% Indo-European; 15% African; 10% Native American ancestry, or they may be found to have 100% Indo-European ancestry.

How is BioGeographical Ancestry estimated?

The DNAPrint test uses an especially selected panel of Ancestry Informative Markers (AIMs) that have been characterized in a large number of well-defined population samples. These markers are selected on the bases of showing substantial differences in frequency between population groups and, as such, can tell us about the origins of a particular person whose ancestry is unknown. For example, the Duffy Null allele (FY*0) is very common (approaching fixation or an allele frequency of 100%) in all sub-Saharan African populations and is not found outside of Africa. Thus, a person with this allele is very likely to have some level of African ancestry. After the analysis of these AIMs, in a sample of a person's DNA, the likelihood (or probability) that a person is derived from any of the parental populations and any of the possible mixes of parental populations is calculated. The population (or combination of populations) where the likelihood is the highest is then taken to be the best estimate of the ancestral proportions of the person. Confidence intervals on these point estimates of ancestral proportions are also being calculated.

How are the DNAPrint results delivered?

The DNAPrint test is delivered in two ways:
a)as a Certificate with the likely percentages of your results, and a Migration Map.
b)in a very informative series of on-line pages which include two graphs, the analyzed DNA sequence and genotype, the Migraption Map and the User's Manual.
Click on DEMO to see how the results are displayed.

How is BGA analysis different from mtDNA and Y-chromosomal ancestry analysis?

Y-DNA and mtDNA tests are means of learning one’s ancestral origins through the non-recombining portion of the DNA which passes along the paternal lines (Y-DNA) and maternal lines (mtDNA). These tests can provide information regarding the provenance of each of the lines of descent through our Recent Ethnic Origins database. DNAPrint on the other hand, gives the proportions of ancestry based on the combination of the ancestors' regions of origins. For example, one generation ago a person has two ancestors, one mother and one father; five generations ago, a person has 32 ancestors; while 10 generations ago, a person has 1024 ancestors. Ten generations is roughly 250 years and within the time frame of genealogical interest, especially when we are considering the settlement of North America, because they only look at two (2) chromosomes. Y-chromosomal analysis and mtDNA analysis each only provide information on each line - paternal or maternal. DNAPrint relies on sequences throughout your genome, so it can say more about a greater number of your ancestors.
It is important to notice that the farther back we go in number of generations, the higher the dilution that a certain ancestry will have in the percentages found through the DNAPrint test. In other words, in theory, the information transferred to a son/daughter comes 50% from each parent, or 25% from each grandparent, or 12.5% from the great-grandparents and so on. Which means that with the DNAPrint having a margin of error of +-2.5%, this test may not be able to identify a certain ancestry past six generations. We use the words "may not be able" because since the genetic information is not transferred precisely equally to siblings, the "six generations" is a reference point, but not a threshold.

Why do people from Europe have East-Asian ancestry and what does it mean?

Approximately 1/3 of Caucasians taking the AncestrybyDNA test show some level of East-Asian ancestry. If a person shows East Asian heritage there is a reason for it. This admixture is repeatably obtainable from the same DNA sample and tracks along pedigrees in expected proportions.
This result does not mean that a person is necessarily X% Chinese or Japanese, but rather that you are most likely of significant (X%) East Asian ancestry, which is a different thing all together. Some Norwegians are of significant East Asian ancestry because there is significant admixture with Lapps (Sammi), which came to Scandinavia from northern Asia and who share a common heritage with Asian Indians, Northern Chinese, Japanese, Ainu and even American Indians. There are other peoples with significant East Asian ancestry that may have contributed to your family tree include migrations/invasions of nomads through Russia as well as other portions of Eastern Europe and are thought to have brought East Asian gene sequences to Europe. Other migrations may not be known at the present time and may have an affect on scores! About half of the South Asian Indians we’ve tested have significant East Asian ancestry, though you would never know by appearance (in your user manual we describe the relationship between % minority ancestry and physical appearance). Just because all of your relatives were born in Europe does not mean they were all 100% Indo European -. Remember - European boundaries are political, not biological like our test, and immigration/emigration between Europe and the rest of the world has been occurring for thousands of years.
Other researchers at Yale and Stanford have shown considerable East Asian admixture in Eastern European, Russian and Northern European populations. An article, published by Rosenberg et al 2002 in the prestigious journal Science showed exactly what our test shows, just using different types of markers, different human subjects and a different algorithm. This is not a coincidence. Their results and ours are trying to tell us something very interesting about human anthropology - something nobody else yet knows, which makes the test just that much more fascinating.

Why one of the population groups is a broad Indo-European group?

The Indo-European group covers the populations from Europe to India, including the Middle East. There are two reasons for grouping all of these seemingly distinct groups together. One, they are actually fairly similar genetically. People from these regions often generate similar admixture results. The further East from Europe a sample originates from, the lower the Indo-European score. In all the samples tested to date, including samples from the South of India, have Indo-European as the major group in the admix test. Secondly, these populations are part of a language group termed Indo-European and this is where we take the label describing this group. What that means is the languages spoken by modern day populations of these regions are descended from a common root language. When you put together the genetic data and the linguistic anthropological data it makes sense that they should be grouped together in our test.

Click here to order a DNAPrint test.