Anthropology.net

Yesterday, my father emailed me a link to the Iranian Genome Project that caught my eye. Ironically, Razib over at Gene Expression also highlighted this project in a recent post. Much like the intentions Harappa & Dodecad ancestry projects, of which I’ve participated in by submitting my 23andme data, the Iranian Genome Project aims to enlighten Iranian heritage and health. As an Iranian American who follows population genetics regularly, I am very keen on intersection of these two topics.

I’ll be following the project, but honestly I don’t have high hopes. I would love to be proven wrong. It seems lofty, using a lot of high yield buzzwords. My first impression was if this nothing more than a CV booster … Especially since it hasn’t been updated since last September. I guess it can’t be completely an empty shell because they have an impressive member on research team, Pardis Sabeti.

You can learn more about this project by checking out their site, watching the following video and following them on Twitter: @irangenes. If you want, you can participate in the project by filling out this survey.

In 2010 the draft genome for Neandertals was released by Svante Pääbo and colleagues. It was reported that European and Asian populations are between 1-4% Neandertal—but what percentage Neandertal are you?

Researcher extracts DNA from a Neandertal specimen

The company known as 23andMe recently released an analysis that claims to answer precisely this question. While personal genome sequencing has not yet hit the mainstream market, 23andMe looks at SNPs, or variations in single nucleotide pairs. Through a comparison between your SNPs and those found in the Neandertal genome draft, for a couple hundred dollars you will be given a percentage. The service has been given the name “Neanderthal Ancestry Estimator.”

Computational biologist Eric Durand developed the project, and has previously worked on both the Neandertal genome draft and Denisova genetics.

I encourage you to take a look at an outline of the methodology, online in a white paper. Are we really at the point where a private company can tell us a likely percentage of our Neandertal ancestry for $207? I’ll let you be the judge.

By Matthew Magnani

Inspired by the Dodecad Ancestry Project by Dienekes Pontikos and Eurogenes Ancestry Project by David Wesolowski, Zack Ajmal (with the help of Razib Khan) has started the Harappa Ancestry Project. Zack explains the motivation behind this project,

“It is a project to analyze (autosomal) genetic data of participants of South Asian origin for the purpose of providing detailed ancestry information. So the focus of the project is on South Asians: Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans.

The project will collect 23andme raw genetic data from participants to better understand the ancestry relationships of different South Asian ethnicities.

I have named it after Harappa, an archaeological site of the Indus Valley Civilization in Punjab, Pakistan.”

There was a nice deal running on 23andme about a month ago for their ancestry & health kit that worked out to be $160 for 1 year. I hopped on board, got my kit, spat in the tube and sent it off. It is currently being analyzed. My ancestry is one of the populations Zack is looking for — so I’ll be sending my data to him. I can’t wait.

If you have had a 23andme genetic testing, you should consider participating in this project. It looks to be very interesting.