By: MikeM

MikeM — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:19:58 +0000

Thanks for the comment. You are correct that the diagram does include
Asian (or Native American) ancestry from both the maternal and
paternal lines in several locations across Dr King’s painting. In some
instances, we’ve been seeing that stretches of chromosomes from
African individuals not from Nigeria, the reference for our “African”
sample in Ancestry Painting, show up as more similar to “East Asian”
than African. For example, this happens to some extent with San
samples from the HGDP-CEPH collection, from Southern Africa. This is
not to say that Dr. King has San ancestry over the fully-orange
segments – More likely is that he may have African ancestry there that
is not well-captured by our Nigerian reference. Fortunately, large
reference datasets are becoming increasingly available, as exemplified
by the recent release of HapMap Phase 3, and 23andMe’s ancestry
features will benefit from the fuller picture of human diversity.

By: Ann Turner

Ann Turner — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:16:35 +0000

Am I understanding the diagram correctly — that a full-height bar means that both the paternal and maternal sides have ancestry from the continental region? The reason I ask is that many of the Asian/Native American bands are full height. Even if Dr. King has some unknown Native American ancestry on his paternal side, it seems odd that it would show up on the same chromosomal segments in so many instances.

Comments on: A Beautiful Ancestry Painting

By: MikeM

By: Ann Turner