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From: "Ken Nordtvedt" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Y SNP mutation rates
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:50:51 -0700
References: <1035221772.1437591230658555292.JavaMail.root@sz0093a.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net><ea3bd9560812301022l24fbca06u479675c17bff814c@mail.gmail.com><C2F321CA906E4DE287F79B9E9290AC79@RichardNW>


Even then it must be absurdly wrong.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Stevens" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: [DNA] Y SNP mutation rates


> Don't you think they mean SNPs that actually get passed along to a
> sufficient number of men to be considered "public"?
>
> Rich
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Faux" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 1:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [DNA] Y SNP mutation rates
>
>
>> Here is a direct quote from the FTDNA site in relation to Y-DNA:
>>
>> "SNPs are small "mistakes" that occur in DNA. SNP mutations are rare.
>> They
>> happen at a rate of approximately one mutation every few hundred
>> generations."
>>
>> This is a long way from one per generation which has become engrained
>> folk
>> wisdom much as the "need" to drink 8 glasses of water a day (for which
>> there
>> is no actual evidence).
>>
>> David K. Faux.
>>
>>
>> On 12/30/08, <> wrote:
>>>
>>> Recently I think Ken quoted a SNP mutation rate of every 400 years or
>>> so,
>>> and I see that the FTDNA website also says that SNPs happen every few
>>> hundred years. I take that to mean that along any one Y chromosome line,
>>> the
>>> average interval between SNP mutations anywhere on the Y is a few
>>> hundred
>>> years. That's considerably less frequent than some of the estimates that
>>> I
>>> have seen in the past, such as the once every 4 generations or even once
>>> per
>>> generation figures that I have seen on this list. It seems to me that
>>> this
>>> newer, lower estimated mutation rate has some pretty important
>>> implications
>>> for haplogroup research, so it would be nice to know more about this
>>> statistic. If it is accurate, then other unusual mutation events that I
>>> don't know much about might be even more important to people trying to
>>> resolve the Y tree than was previously thought.
>>>
>>> So, can anyone tell me more about Y SNP mutation rates or unusual
>>> mutation
>>> events affecting the Y chromosome?
>>>
>>> Kirsten Saxe
>>>
>>>
>>
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>
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