Genetic stories, both intimate and universal, were the topic of the day at the New-York Historical Society on Thursday at “It’s All Relatives: The Science Of Your Family Tree,” a program of the 2014 World Science Festival.
Broadcast journalist Randall Pinkston led the conversation, opening with Ancestry.com scientist Catherine Ball and genetic genealogist Cece Moore (also a consultant and script writer on the PBS show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
Genetic genealogy is more within reach of the average person than ever, thanks to advances in sequencing technology that have helped the cost of genome sequencing dramatically plummet from nearly $3 billion in 2000 to near $1,000 nowadays. That sort of price reduction is mind-boggling, Ball said. “It’s as if, 15 years from now, I could get my own Mars rover.”
The stories that DNA tells can be surprising. Moore, who was a professional singer before she became a geneticgenealogist, was able to trace a version of the ASAP1 gene, linked to perfect pitch, back through her mother’s side of the family. And her brother-in-law, surprised by a genetic test showing traces of African ancestry, was able to trace his family all the way back to Madison Hemings, the son of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings.
Another panelist, Stony Brook University SUNY evolutionary geneticist Brenna Henn, spoke to a broader vision of the family tree—the genetic roots all of mankind. When you start looking at the flow and variation of genes throughout the world, even more interesting stories arise.
“African populations have the most genetic diversity in the world,” Henn said. “If you compared people from the Kalahari Desert to people from Mali, they’d be as different from each other [genetically] as Italians and Chinese people.”
Why are other populations of humans so much less genetically varied than Africans? The answer, Henn explains, lies in our ancestors’ history; the groups of people that migrated out of Africa and spread throughout other continents were smaller subsets of that original, genetically diverse population. Some scientists even estimate that all Native Americans can trace their ancestry back to an effective population of a mere 100 people that crossed over the Bering Strait land bridge from Asia.
…[the drop in cost for genome sequencing] is mind-boggling, Ball said. “It’s as if, 15 years from now, I could get my own Mars rover.”
Such a small sample from a larger population won’t reflect the full spread of gene variation from the larger group. Henn compares it to picking up a small handful of jellybeans out of a big bowl; chances are you probably won’t grab every single color.
Mark Shriver, a Pennsylvania State University geneticist, researches genetic markers for disease. But lately, he’s focusing on certain physical traits: face shape in particular. Shriver’s working on a big project called ADAPT2 that’s aimed at understanding genetic influences behind a person’s physical features. As genetic analyses like Shriver’s become better and better, there are all sorts of possible applications: The Department of Justice, which supports Shriver’s work, is interested in creating better forensic tests that can paint a better portrait of criminal suspects.
But Shriver’s work with the DOJ gave Pinkston pause, “as a guy who has to worry about WWB—walking while black.”
While genetics could, unfortunately, become another tool used to profile black people, Shriver pointed out that it could also be used to steer cops away from harassing innocent African-Americans; genetic evidence has already been used to steer police investigations away from black suspects toward white ones.
Balancing concerns for genetic privacy with ongoing research will continue to weigh heavily in the future. Though federal law (the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act) prohibits employers from using genetic information to make hiring, firing, placement and promotion decisions, and also bars insurance companies from charging higher premiums or denying coverage to people on the basis of genetic information, other sticky issues may arise.
It’s difficult, too, to determine just how much our genetic information can really be considered totally our own property.
“If I participate in your study,” Ball said to Shriver, “you’re not only getting my information, but a lot of information from family members that have not consented.”
Though I disagree about Henn's claims about Indigenous Americans as genetics show that Indigene American populations show diversity indicating origins from multiple dispersals with not all of them being via Beringea.
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^ I think she did not even consider South, Central America to have Amerindians. Or at least being different.
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