Gain a Chromosome and Adapt

research in Yeast

 

Gaining or losing a chromosome, a condition known as aneuploidy, is often caused by stress, and is known to have detrimental consequences, including a variety of human diseases. But according to new research in yeast published online today (January 30) in Nature, stress-induced aneuploidy may also help organisms adapt, conferring an adaptive advantage to yeast cells in the face of continued stress.
“It’s in interesting study,” said Judith Berman, a molecular geneticist at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the research. Berman’s own work in Candida albicans  yeast supports the idea that aneuploidy has adaptive functions, she said, and the new study highlights aneuploidy’s underappreciated role in generating genetic and phenotypic diversity.

  http://the-scientist.com/2012/01/30/gain-a-chromosome-and-adapt/

read the rest of the story

25th for "mitochondrial Eve"

Genetics Unlocks Genealogy

An interview with two of  the scientists who published the article
in Science, January 1987 (Rebecca Cann and Mark Stoneking; Allan Wilson
died in 1991).
 
http://io9.com/5879991/the-scientists-behind-mitochondrial-eve-tell-us-about-the-lucky-mother-who-changed-human-evolution-forever
 

Nelda
 

Who Do You Think You Are !

 Who Do You Think You Are
Come and find your family at Who Do You Think You Are? Live
24-26 February 2012  - Olympia, London

The biggest family history event in the world.

Whether you’re new to tracing your family tree or a seasoned researcher, it’s packed with industry-leading genealogy experts, informative workshops and celebrities from the TV show to help with your own family history quest.

You can buy tickets here: http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com/

ISOGG - International Society of Genetic Genealogists
has a Stand at number 433 - Some Surname projects are offereing free tests to people with that surname. You never know you just might be the Lucky one.
Genealogy as you know needs your family information to figure how you connect with others of your surname. Y-DNA testing
will prove if you and another person share a common ancestor, your family data tells us how byour related.

If your in London - Stop by for a chat.

Nelda
Researching the Gilpin surname

CeCe to Lead 23andMe's Ancestry Ambassador Group

"Your Genetic Genealogist" Appointed to Lead 23andMe's Ancestry Ambassador Group


 The only thing we can give our children are roots and wings -
Now there is DNA




http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/2012/01/your-genetic-genealogist-appointed-to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YourGeneticGenealogist+%28Your+Genetic+Genealogist%29

Want to preserve the internet

COPIED VERBATIM

Hi Nelda,

Want to preserve the internet we know and love, and keep it an innovative force for the future?

Today, Mozilla is joining in a virtual strike with other leading public interest organizations and tech companies, from Wikipedia to Reddit to Google, to protest the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and its companion legislation in the US House, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) -- and we need your voice.

The fact is that it's been a great couple of weeks in the fight against the PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Acts -- the White House came out against them, and the growing chorus of opposition both in and outside of government has been heartening.

But the fight is not over, particularly in the Senate. There's a week left until Senators return to Washington from their districts, when their vote is scheduled on the PROTECT IP Act -- can you help make one last push while they're still nearby, by calling their local offices and asking them not to support PIPA? Get started here:

http://stopthewall.us/

And to see how Mozilla is striking -- and for other ways to take action today -- check out:

http://mozilla.org/sopa

No matter what happens, this isn't the last step -- there's currently a vote on the PROTECT IP Act scheduled for next week, once the Senate is back in session, and if it goes forward we'll be in touch with how to make the biggest difference beforehand.

Thanks for all you've done to help fight this misguided legislation. It's looking good, but we can't let up now.

Ben

P.S. -- Not in the US? Unfortunately, you shouldn't contact the senate, but please forward this on to anyone you know in the states, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together a petition to get your message to the US State Department. You can sign that here:

https://donate.mozilla.org/State-Dept

--

Ben Simon
Join Mozilla Lead
Mozilla Foundation

Barry's Blog on Genealogy

FACEBOOK- 

Barry's Blog on Genealogy

Barry J. Ewell launches Barry's Blog on Genealogy--Barry J. Ewell, founder of MyGenShare.com and nationally known writer, presenter, researcher and mentor of genealogists launches a daily blog. The content will include articles, podcasts, slideshows, and videos. http://ow.ly/8woS6

His Blog:   http://barrysblog.mygenshare.com/

Digitizing family history #1: Why digital preservation is important for you  Posted on Jan 16, 2012

Excellent Information.. Doing Genealogy? visit his site..

Nelda

 

Does DNA Link 1991 Killing to Colonial-Era Family?

Hi,
There are some excellent articles about the use of Y-DNA results in finding Criminals.


1.  The Genetic Genealogists

http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2012/01/11/does-dna-link-1991-killing-to-colonial-era-family/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheGeneticGenealogist+%28The+Genetic+Genealogist%29


2.  "The Legal Genealogist
 http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2012/01/11/dna-and-paranoia/


Nelda

Good News Bad News

Hi,

I'm rather disturbed by this sensationalisum about a murder. DNA from a genetic genealogy surname group being used with out the volunteer admin giving permission and then the Media stretching the truth of what that DNA found and how it might be used. The person who gave the interview did not inform the surname admin what she was using it for .. she said she was helping a friend trace back to the Mayflower group.  But not even that,  the person she compared to does not connect to the Mayflower group. Just has the same last name.

A friend on one of the DNA mailing lists where we are discussing this horrible infringement on a person's privacy has written this to help explain. I hope you take the time to read it.

This rather "sensational" story may generate a lot of discussion among people involved in DNA testing for genealogical purposes:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/09/justice/washington-cold-case/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

My take is that this is a fascinating, but Good News/Bad News kind of story....   The good news is that DNA may eventually help solve a 20-year old murder case.  The bad news is that it is reported in a sensational way that is somewhat misleading and incomplete.  By it's very nature, the Y-DNA testing used in genealogical studies only results in identifying a "class" of male individuals that descend from a common male ancestor and cannot be used to exclusively identify an individual person.  In some cases, there could be literally thousands of living males that would be members of this same specific "class" of individuals. 

If ever theoretically couched as "evidence," it would therefore be properly categorized as "class" evidence rather than "individual" evidence.  It would simply give you a "class" of individuals to look at, nothing more, nothing less.  Also, since a proper "chain of custody" is not maintained in a Y-DNA sample submission for "genealogical-purposes-only" use, it would very properly be immediately suppressed during "evidence suppression hearings."  The individual suspect then could only be positively identified through autosomal DNA tests that are properly collected, with "chain of custody" also being properly maintained on the samples.  Theses autosomal DNA tests are actually a cluster of (13) designated autosomal chromosomes used in the CODIS (Combinded DNA Index System) standard observed by police laboratories and recognized by the courts. Humans have 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes (CODIS looks at only 13 of these), and one pair of "sex" chromosomes (xx in females, xy in males).  The CODIS panel specifically does not include the 23rd pair sex chromosomes because they are "non-coding," or that is to say they do not report individual traits beyond gender.  In contrast, all autosomal chromosomes are "coding" and do include your individual traits.  

Now back to the sensationalism flare of the story.  If they had instead said that the suspect was known to have blood type "AB negative," people would quickly recognize this as a simple "class" of individuals who all have this same blood type living at the time in the greater Seattle metropolitan region.  Bottom line, before anyone jumps to any conclusions about how this affects Y-DNA testing in genealogy studies, police use autosomal DNA tests (CODIS), and we ordinarily (with exceptions) only test the non-coding 23rd pair "sex" chromosome, which is called "Y-DNA" in males and "mtDNA" (mitochondrial DNA) in females.  I truly hope they catch the suspect, but all Y-DNA did was narrow the field to a very large class of living male individuals. 

Sorry to be long-winded, but I thought this story might generate some discussion.   I know some of our more science minded members might "tweak" some of my terminology, but hopefully, I generally got it right.

name removed for privacy

Nelda

Chinese Crunch Human Genome With Video Game Chips

 Hi, Over at the ISOGG mailing list VERY VERY INTERESTING!

 

Katherine Borges posted in International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG).

Katherine Borges 10:03pm Jan 6 Chinese Crunch Human Genome With Video Game Chips www.wired.com The world's largest genome sequencing center once needed four days to analyze data describing a huma...

the lost colony and genetics article

From Roberta Estes:
Not technically heavy, but good, positive, publicity.
 She is talking about the article in "The  Scientist - the magazine of the Sciences.
http://the-scientist.com/2012/01/01/lost-colony-dna/


The Lost Colony Research Group has a website at:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~molcgdrg/

I'm the webmistress

Nelda

My mother's relatives

Momma, was born Nellie Bonstein b. Nov 11, 1916 in Pawnee Oklahoma. I must say off the top mom lived through the dust bowl days, and people from OK weren't thought of to highly. So Momma wouldn't let us go barefoot or listen to country music. Such a shame I go barefoot all the time now..LOL!

My mother's father was George Torrance Bonstein he was born 24 Mar 1885, in Stockdale, Ks.  He died as a causality of a Japanese attack on the coast of California.
I know most of you reading this will say hogwash, well maybe even bull...... instead. And you might be right and you might be wrong.  In November of 1942 George Torrence Bonstein an excellent swimmer, was drowned in the Pacific Ocean just off the southern coast of California. His body washed up on the Venture, Ca beach. Grandfather had been out deepsea fishing off the coast line the boat dissapeared about 10 days before he was found on 10 November.

The fishing vessel was blown apart and about the same time in the same area an Oil field was hit with artillery from off shore, actually the Japanese Submarine was spotted so they knew where the shells came from.

We the family heartily believe his vessel was torpedoed. There are newspaper accounts of the shelling on my website.

Nelda