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What is the difference between testing fewer markers versus testing more markers?

The Y-Chromosome is passed down from father to child relatively unchanged from generation to generation. The Y-Chromosome that you receive from your father is unique to your family line. This means that your Y-Chromosome has certain features that differ from the Y-Chromosome of an unrelated family line. All males who have the same ancestor as yourself would have inherited a similar Y-Chromosome as the one that you have received. Thus, the Y-Chromosome is a powerful tool for tracing your roots and linking together families with the same surname who are descendents from the same family line.

When a Y-Chromosome test is performed, the laboratory can test up to 44 markers on your Y-Chromosome. The more markers that are tested, the more power the test becomes and the more you can use your Y-Chromosome to pinpoint your genetic cousins.

For example, 12 markers alone are usually not powerful enough to distinguish you from other family lines and can give inconclusive results. The more markers that you test, the more powerful your comparison becomes. By testing 20 markers, you will have more ability to accurately link to your genetic cousins. By testing 44 markers, your searches will be even more stringent, and positive matches will be stronger.

There are two major advantages for testing more markers:
1. To prevent false positives.
2. To obtain conclusive results.

Scenario:

Mr. Jones has been studying his family's ancestry for several years and has started a "Jones" family study based in Arizona. He is interested in confirming that his family line is linked to a "Jones" line in New York. Although there are rumours that the two lines are related, Mr. Jones does not have the paperwork to prove this link. Furthermore, Mr. Jones has heard about the powerful capabilities of DNA testing for finding and linking family lines and would like to see if his line is linked to any other Jones lines worldwide.

Mr. Jones had previously chosen to test just 12 markers. After testing, he enters the 12 markers into a public database and finds out that he is a perfect match to the Jones line in New York. However, he also finds that he has a perfect match to over 200 individuals in the database, and over half of them do not even share his surname. How is this possible? Does it mean that he is related to everyone who matches him at the 12 markers? No, this simply means that data from only 12 markers are not powerful enough to distinguish Mr. Jones from other family lines.

To clarify this, Mr. Jones decides to upgrade his test to 20 markers. He enters the results of his 20 markers into the database and this time narrows down the number of matches, in fact, now, only 18 people match him perfectly at his 20 markers, including the Jones line in New York. Surprisingly, many of the individuals who used to match perfectly at 12 locations only match at 14 or less out of the 20 locations tested, confirming that there is no familial link with most of the 200 individuals identified in the 12 marker test (more than 3 mismatches indicates that two family lines are not related).

To further clarify the findings, Mr. Jones decides to upgrade to a 44 marker test. This time, he finds out that he is a perfect match at all 44 markers to only two lines, a Jones line in England, and a Jones line in the United States. After contacting the two lines and comparing paperwork and stories, Mr. Jones was able to confirm that his line was indeed definitely linked to both lines and he is now able to add both new lines to his family tree!

Surprisingly, Mr. Jones was also able to find out that only 43 out of the 44 markers matched with the Jones line in New York. This confirms that although the Jones line in New York is related to his line, they are more distantly related.

Mr. Jones also discovered that he had a close match to 4 other Jones lines (43 out of the 44 matched) and he is now pursuing the possibility that the 4 other lines are also distantly related to him (MRCA analysis dictates that 1 mutation occurs every 500 generations, and thus we would detect a mutation every 12 generations with the 44 marker test).

Mr. Jones is now trying to recruit more Jones males from throughout Europe to try to reconstruct and relink his family line.

Conclusions:

As you can see, the 12 marker test was simply not powerful and discriminating enough for Mr. Jones to pinpoint his family lines. After upgrading to the 20 marker test, Mr. Jones was able to obtain more useful information and was able to eliminate false matches generated by the less powerful 12 marker test. However, the 44 marker test was able to tell him the most useful information, and was able to pinpoint the people that he is looking for and was furthermore able to accurately answer his questions about his relationship to the Jones line in New York. Mr. Jones is now able to carry on his research, and as more and more people globally are tested and are added to the database, Mr. Jones will be able to reconstruct his family line in great detail and re-unite with Jones worldwide who are descendents of his family line.

Our testing laboratory is ISO17025 accredited and accredited by the AABB. We are one of the few testing facilities in the world to have received ISO17025 accreditation for DNA testing. Genebase utilizes advanced DNA testing technology and smartly designed multiplexes to bring you the more advanced and most accurate DNA testing services. You are provided with direct contact with our testing facility throughout your testing process. You will notice the difference it makes between dealing directly with the testing laboratory.

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