GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2009-05 > 1243125791


From: "Alister John Marsh" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] NPE.
Date: Sun, 24 May 2009 12:43:11 +1200
References: <1323176183.13148871243102638055.JavaMail.root@sz0093a.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net><002e01c9dbd9$26949e30$6400a8c0@Ken1><BAY103-DS59319E763D9A9EF6445C3C8570@phx.gbl><001801c9dbf9$6af23e50$6400a8c0@Ken1><BAY103-DS3B4FD60131C90A4955C63C8570@phx.gbl>
In-Reply-To: <BAY103-DS3B4FD60131C90A4955C63C8570@phx.gbl>


Richard,

You said...
>>>>>>>
In essence, it causes people to perform SNP tests that they would normally
never consider doing, just in the hope that another polymorphism will be
found in the same Y-segment as someone else in their subclade. To me, it's
like going to Vegas with a thousand dollars and expecting to come back a
millionaire. The odds strongly favor coming back broke.
<<<<<<<

Perhaps the majority of those who go to Vegas are aware of the odds, but
find the excitement of the adventure reward enough to justify the likely
cost. I suspect that many lives travel large distances with no more than
"against the odds hopes" in the fuel tank. We feed on what we have.

For the present, The "Walk Through Y" is the only way many people have to
participate in the exciting area of SNP discovery.

One advantage of WTY, is that although only a small number of SNPs may be
discovered, the likelihood is that the discovery process the way it is
structured will enable the SNPs to be roughly located on the Y Tree
instantly.

A problem with SNP discovery to date has been that when individual SNPs have
been discovered in research projects, their usefulness is lost because it
has not been cost effective to investigate the location of the SNPs on the
tree. If I recall, when S68 was discovered, EA at their own expense tested
hundreds of reference samples to try and narrow down where it occurred in
the Y-Tree. With WTY, because hopefully hundreds of customers from a wide
range of haplogroup subclades will be testing the same 100,000 bases, as
soon as a SNP is found, it will be apparent what neighbourhood on the tree
it is located in.

Even if a person tests WTY, and comes up negative for all SNPs discovered in
the WTY project, their "negative" results are of considerable value to the
wider community, in that they show that any specific new SNP discovered is
not in their neck of the woods, ie it contributes to identifying where on
the tree the new SNPs are, or are not.

I think a large number of those paying for their WTY test, or contributing a
small donation to testing of others, are doing so in part with a community
minded motive to contribute something of value to the wider community. Even
it they would be delighted if a SNP was discovered which did end up
benefiting themselves personally.

You have no obligation to contribute to WTY, but it is possible you may
never the less benefit, if WTY turns up a SNP in your branch of the tree.

Your comments may dissuade from testing a person whose testing might have
lead to a discovery of a SNP which benefited your own subclade, or mine, or
someone else's. You might have saved that person the cost of testing, and
denied the wider community the benefit of that discovery at this time.

People should be aware of the odds. I think it is no secret that WTY will
not find a SNP for most people. But I see WTY as a valuable initiate from
FTDNA, and I personally am grateful to everyone who tests WTY, even if they
are negative for all new SNPs and by being so help to locate SNPs of the Y
Tree.

John.



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