DNA test helps trace family origins

A simple DNA test could help pinpoint the place a person’s family came from to within a few miles, a study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh say that genetic testing can accurately predict the origins of rural people to within five miles of their family’s home.

And their findings suggest it may soon be possible to detect the rural roots of city dwellers who have ancestors from different parts of the same country.

Previous studies have shown there are genetic differences between populations in different countries. This makes it is possible to predict, for example, whether someone is of northern or southern Italian descent based on their genes.

However, the team led by Dr Jim Wilson in Edinburgh tested whether the same analysis could be used to distinguish between people from the same country who were separated only by short distances.

They looked at the genes of volunteers from the Scottish islands, the Alpine valleys of Italy and villages in Croatia. Only people whose four grandparents came from the same village, were included in the study to ensure they had one definite place of origin.

None of the volunteers were related to each other.

The results showed that by studying genetic differences it is possible to distinguish between individuals who live in villages that are only five miles apart.

The researchers predicted the correct village of origin for 100 per cent of the Italian sample, 96 per cent of the Scottish sample and 89 per cent in the Croatian sample.

They concluded that the pattern can be explained by the fact that long ago people tended to marry within their own community.

And after many generations, the different villages developed their own genetic fingerprint, so that they can now be detected by scientists.

Dr Wilson said: "This exciting finding begs the question of whether we will be able to identify the rural origins of urban peopel with ancestry from many places across a country. People are very interested in the past and where they came from."

The findings are published in the European Journal of Human Genetics.

This article was published on Wed 7 July 2010