July 25, 2012

Genographic 2.0 launched

The Genographic Project at National Geographic has announced their new Genographic 2.0 test. This is a new test which tests about 150,000 SNPs and gives you information about your ancestry:
  • Ancestral breakdown (admixture)
  • Hominid (Neandertal/Denisova) admixture
  • Y chromosome haplogroup (apparently on the order of 10,000 SNPs)
  • mtDNA haplogroup
I participated in a pre-launch online presentation of the test about a month ago, and it seems that the creators of the test have paid some thought into identifying their set of SNPs. The number of SNPs is about right for ancestry comparisons, but it will be interesting to see how many of them intersect the many publicly available datasets that already exist.

If you take the test and receive your raw data, drop me a line -but don't send me the data, right away!- because I would be interested in seeing the format in which the data can be downloaded, for possible inclusion of Geno 2.0 data in my own Dodecad Project. It might be a good idea for a technical description of the new array to be posted on the website.

Overall, it is a great idea to update the Genographic test that was previously based only on Y chromosomes and mtDNA, and I will be following any further developments closely. Your Genetic Genalogist and The Genetic Genealogist have many more details on this.

(I do not personally endorse any particular testing company or product).

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