- 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.
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- 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.
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- ``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.
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- 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.
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- ``This shows how closely connected we all are,'' he said
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- The Oxford University professor first started taking
DNA from archaeological bones and then in 1994 was called in to examine
the frozen remains of a 5,000-year-old man trapped in glacial ice in Northern
Italy.
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- This led him to research how a gene passed undiluted
from generation to generation through the maternal line and helped him
to track down our own genetic ancestors.
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- ``If you look at the mitochondrial gene, it is DNA which
is just inherited from your mother. It is found in eggs not sperm,'' he
explained in an interview with Reuters.
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- After taking several thousand DNA samples, the clan mothers
in Europe were narrowed down to ``The Seven Daughters of Eve,'' the title
of his new book chronicling his DNA detective work.
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- ``To bring these women alive I gave them names and worked
out where they lived and when. They range from Ursula in Greece 45,000
years ago to Jasmine 10,000 years ago in Syria -- she came from the Middle
East along with the farmers,'' he said.
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- ``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.
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- Sykes said ``Thousand of people have asked to have a
DNA test to find out who they are descended from.''
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- So oxfordancestors.com was set up on the Internet.
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- You send off 150 pounds, receive a swab kit and then
send it back for analysis that will reveal your origins.
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- ``The majority came from the United States. I think the
reason for the interest is rediscovering the fact we have a history and
the genes are not just something you are given like a National Insurance
Number,'' Sykes said.
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- ``Your genes are a very, very precious gift and you should
be proud of them,'' he concluded.
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