DNA Link to Last Names

[Sheenar]

Yahoo News

LONDON (Reuters) - Police could one day predict the surname of male suspects or victims of crime from DNA alone, British researchers said on Wednesday.
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Scientists at Leicester University, where DNA fingerprinting was invented in 1984, said they had demonstrated that men with the same surname were highly likely to be genetically linked.

The finding could help genealogy researchers as well detectives investigating crimes using traces of DNA found in blood, hair, saliva or semen.

The technique is based on analyzing DNA from the Y chromosome that imparts maleness and which, like surnames, is passed down from father to son.

Not surprisingly, the likelihood of a good genetic match depends on the rarity of the name, with the most unusual names having the strongest links.

A study of 2,500 men found that on average there was a 24 percent chance of two men with the same surname sharing a common ancestor but this increased to nearly 50 percent when the surname was rare.

Over 70 percent of men with surnames such as Attenborough and Swindlehurst shared the same or near identical Y chromosome types.

"The fact that such a strong link exists between surname and Y chromosome type has a potential use in forensic science, since it suggests that, given large databases of names and Y chromosome profiles, surname prediction from DNA alone may be feasible," said Turi King, who will present her research at a lecture on Wednesday.

Interesting.

[EricTheFred]

I don't know if any of these bright guys have thought this through sufficiently. For me, this finding has a certain "Well, duh" character to it.

[Doubleshadow]

*snort* And this helps how? This is not the kind of thing that stands up in court, and it is a great opportunity to have people cry discrimination. Was it a slow day ay the news desk or something?

[minakichan]

ORLY? Geez... *headdesk*

So what about white people and Chinese people with the last name Lee? What then?! Buncha dorks.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

ORLY? Geez... *headdesk*

So what about white people and Chinese people with the last name Lee? What then?! Buncha dorks.

Those are probably from different "original" Lees. XD

[Doubleshadow]

Those are probably from different "original" Lees. XD

I don't know; sometimes people just have bad "jeans".

[Mr. SmartyPants]

[quote="Doubleshadow (post: 1263097)"]I don't know]
Oh snaaaaaaap!

[Dante]

This is not the kind of thing that stands up in court

No... but it would narrow down their list of suspects perhaps and if they are able to acquire this subjects DNA from elsewhere and then match THAT to the DNA found at the crimescene... now that would stand up in court. This is just a useful filter and not the piece of convicting evidence.

[Gabriel 9.0]

I'd have to go to France, Africa, Poland, Sicily, Puerto Rican and my Cherokee Indian tribe for my family tree XD. J/k, those are the origins of my heritage though.

[EricTheFred]

I'd have to go to France, Africa, Poland, Sicily, Puerto Rican and my Cherokee Indian tribe for my family tree XD. J/k, those are the origins of my heritage though.

Yes but the chances are good that only one country would matter for both your Y Chromosome and your last name. For the majority of people in most Western Hemisphere countries and East Asian countries at least, you get both from your patrilinear ancester. Which is why I said 'Well, duh.' It comes out that way by definition.

Like they say on Mythbusters, "WARNING: SCIENCE CONTENT":

In a great many parts of the world, a strong majority of males carry the same last name as their biological father. It is inherited patrilinearily... in other words, the name traces back a single line. Father, father's-father, father's-father's-father, etc.

For all human males, regardless of culture, the exact same thing is true of the Y chromosome. The one in your cells is the same one (excluding some average rate of mutation) as the Y chromosome in your father's-father's-father's--- extended however many times you wish to take it back-- father's Y chromosome. Your value for that average rate of mutation depends upon whether you accept the age of the Human race as various people have calculated it from Genesis, or you accept some other number. But regardless of the value, the difference at a shorter length of time is fairly small, thus every male descended from the same father's-father's-whatever number father will have the roughly identical Y chromosomes. They are also statistically likely to have the same last name.

You can't do the chromosome thing with females because they don't have Y chromosomes. However, there is also a genetic marker you share, whether you are male or female, with all those that have the same mother's-mother's- however many times mother. It's the DNA in your mitochondria, which you inherit only from your mother. And thus, there is the same disagreement between Creationists and Evolutionists about the rate of mutation, because if you can determine the greatest variance found between human mitochondrial DNA, you can derive a number of generations that have happened since Eve... provided you agree on how fast that DNA mutates from generation to generation.