Geneticist: We Descended From 33 Daughters of Eve in Africa 200,000 years ago

Reuters - May 30, 2001
By Paul Majendie

HAY-ON-WYE, Wales (Reuters) - We are all descended from the 33 daughters of Eve. Just take a swab from your cheek and you can find which one is your original ancestor.

That is the view of Professor Bryan Sykes, one of the world's top geneticists who has spent the last decade mapping out where we come from.

"Your genes have been through a fantastic journey," he told Britain's leading literary festival Tuesday in the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye where he laid out a fascinating DNA pathway to the past.

Now, after opening such a fascinating Pandora's Box, he has found that thousands of people around the world, from the United States to South Africa, are consumed with curiosity and want to find out who their original "clan mother" is.

"There are roughly 33 equivalent clusters if you take the whole world. Eventually it all comes down to Mitochondrial Eve in Africa 200,000 years ago," he added.

"This shows how closely connected we all are," he said More...

BBC May 11, 2000
Fossils may be 'first Europeans' The Remains of what may be the earliest human ancestors to migrate from Africa into Europe have been found in the Republic of Georgia. Two skulls, which are probably about 1.7 million years old. More...

Story of Human Mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial genome, unlike the much larger nuclear genome, is directly transmitted through the maternal line, makes it an ideal piece DNA with which to trace family lineage's. Small families, and large ones, too. The last few years have seen an extraordinary number of studies on the relationships of human population groups throughout the world. These studies have approached important questions, not the least of which is how long ago the great native populations of Africa, Europe, and Asia diverged from each other. The genetic markers used for these studies, naturally enough, are mitochondrial DNA. More

Mitochondrial Gene Arrangement Source Guide
Haplotypes consisting of alleles at a short tandem repeat polymorphism (STRP) and an Alu deletion polymorphism at the CD4 locus on chromosome 12 were analyzed in more than 1600 individuals sampled from 42 geographically dispersed populations (13 African, 2 Middle Eastern, 7 European, 9 Asian, 3 Pacific, and 8 Amerindian). Sub-Saharan African populations had more haplotypes and exhibited more variability in frequencies of haplotypes than Northeast African or non-African populations. The Alu deletion was nearly always associated with a wide range of STRP alleles in the sub-Saharan African populations. This global pattern of haplotype variation and linkage disequilibrium suggests a common and recent African origin for all non-African human populations. More...

DNA study traces ancient ancestry of Europeans CNN
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Four out of five men in Europe share a common male ancestor who lived as a hunter on a wild continent some 40,000 years ago, researchers say.
In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, researchers say an analysis of a pattern found in the Y chromosome taken from 1,007 men from 25 places in Europe shows that about 80 percent of Europeans arose from the Paleolithic people who first migrated to Europe. More....

Who were the Neanderthals and early modern humans?
The Neanderthals were an ancient race of people who inhabited Europe, the Near East, Central Asia, and probably western Siberia far back in prehistory. The earliest fossil remains of Neanderthals come from Europe and are more than 200,000 years old. For tens of thousands of years, the Neanderthals roamed as hunters and gatherers over the plains, forests, and mountains of northern and western Eurasia. Then during the middle of the last Ice Age, over a period of about 10 millennia, from roughly 40,000 to 30,000 years ago, a new type of human began to proliferate in the Neanderthals' domain. More on Neanderthals and Modern Humans A Regional Guide

The Origin of Modern Humans: Multiregional and Replacement Theories From: Linfield
DNA analysis boosts theory of African origin of humans
From: Newsday
Analysis boosts theory of African origin of humans
From: Journel Sentinel
Some Mitochondrial Eve: Notes

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