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From: Gary Felix <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Jewish DNA
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:41:36 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <4C53F0B9.8070006@tadaust.org.au>


Hello Patrick,
Jewish DNA like any other DNA from an endogamous population is all about genetic drift in what effectively is a small population size due to endogamy. What you end up with is very specific DNA that has drifted from everyone else. Unusual variants can survive in a population like this since once it is introduced to the population it is not as likely to be bred out due to the small effective population size.
 
Autosomal dna testing has proven to be the best way to identify Jewish DNA. Half Identical Regions are bound by telomeres, affected by centomeres and start and stop on homozygous mismatches. Since Jews are related on both sides of their families its stands to reason they would have an inordinate amount of homozygous snips vs someone outside an endogamous population. Effectively if you match this population you would be matching at a greater confidence level relative to most other populations because you would have to have a higher level of homozyous snips and therefore tests of this relationship.
 
Gary
Mexico DNA Project Admin.
 


--- On Sat, 7/31/10, patrick holland <> wrote:


From: patrick holland <>
Subject: [DNA] Jewish DNA
To:
Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010, 2:45 AM


Hello,

I have been following the extensive discussion about the DNA evidence
of  Sephardic Jewish ancestry in the contemporary inhabitants of places
such as Mexico and other  places in the New World  where Jews settled 
following the Jewish diaspora from Spain during the 400 years of the
Spanish Inquisition.

>From an Anthropological perspective, a  Jew is, by definition , someone
who is born of a Jewish mother, it has nothing to do with DNA.
Therefore, I ask myself, from a genealogical perspective,  what is, '
Jewish DNA ' ?


Patrick Holland.
Perth, Western Australia.


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