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What is a mutation?

Mutations are natural changes in DNA which occur randomly and is the basis for the theory of evolution. If DNA never changes, then living organisms cannot evolve. The reason that evolution occurs is because every few generations, DNA will naturally change very slightly. Mutations are very helpful when conducting genealogy research. This is because mutations will allow us to determine approximately how long ago two family lines likely shared a common ancestor.

What happens when a mutation occurs in the Y-Chromosome?

When a mutation occurs at one of the markers that we are examining, the number of repeats will increase or decrease, usually by one. For example, a father who is DYS19 = 10 may encounter a mutation at the level of his sperm which will change the DYS19 into 11 (an increase of 1). This new DYS19 is then introduced to his son, who will then pass the DYS19 = 11 to all of his sons.

A mutation normally happens when the polymerase which copies the DNA in our body makes a slight mistake and does not copy the original exactly. All changes are then passed on to further generations.

Mutations are extremely rare. The chances that a single Y-Chromosome marker will mutate is approximately once in every 500 generations. In a situation where 44 markers are examined, we would expect to see one mutation occurring in any one of the 44 markers every 11.4 generations (divide 500 by 44). The presence and detection of such mutations while you are conducting your research will allow you to determine how closely you are related to another family line. This is called MRCA (most recent common ancestor), and is a measure of up to how long ago a common ancestor lived.

Mr. Brown then searched Genebase for genetic matches and found that several other lines of Browns in Australia and Germany matched his Brown line perfectly, thus allowing the three Brown families to merge their information into a large global project. In a matter of 6 months, Mr. Brown has pieced together his ancestry dating back to the 1300's and is now in contact with his "global family": a family of Browns who are descendents of a common Brown ancestor. Mr. Brown is now continuing to grow his highly successful project by encouraging other Browns worldwide to participate to see if they are GeneGroups™ offers exchange of family stories and legends quickly and easily online, the Brown project has become very interesting with a deep history and many remarkable figures and ties throughout history. Mr. Brown feels that his journey has opened an amazing chapter of his life and is now en route to linking together Brown lines worldwide and discovering and recreating his amazing lineage.

The longer ago two families share a common ancestor (MRCA), the more mismatches (mutations) we are likely to see. If two families have identical Y-Chromosome haplotypes, it means that they are closely related. One or two mismatches out of 44 markers indicates that they are more distantly related. However, if there are 3 or more mismatches, this means that the two family groups are not related.

Learn more about MRCA and how it is determined.

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