DNA Project, General

Dear Annie, Inheritance and traits for that matter are …

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Comment posted Familytree – Syrian Christians DNA Project Information by Jackson.

Dear Annie,

Inheritance and traits for that matter are contributed from both the father’s and mother’s side. If you are speaking of physical traits then yes.

Now coming to the ancestral studies… It is different from the previous one. Y-DNA is the Y-chromosome that is passed on exclusively from father to son to son and so forth un-interrupted for ages. So when a person (male only) tests for his y dna it says about his specific male lineage or paternal founder/ancestor.

Males also carry the mtDNA or mitochondrial DNA from the mother as the father contributes almost nil mtDNA. This is that particular tested person’s maternal lineage only. This mtDNA would be same only for him and his direct siblings. However the mtDNA of his father could be different as his father’s mother is from a different family/lineage. So mtDNA/maternal lineages in a given family could be different at different generations since (different) women ‘enter’ a family as in a patriarchal society. But this family’s Y-DNA remains the same throughout, detected in males of the family.

So when I say my mtDNA is X, it doesnt mean my maternal “ancestors” were from X haplogroup but just my mother’s mtDNA is X. But with Y-DNA haplogroup I can go back ages to my paternal ancestors and find who they were since it passes on uniterrupted. The case would be reverse in a matriarchal society.

Females carry only the mtDNA and no y dna. So a female’s paternal ancestry can be known from her brother’s or father’s test result only.

I also found an interesting comment from your post saying ” if u are a girl make sure u have a daughter to pass on ur DNA! “. Funny but scientifically wrong. A girl/female passes her DNA TO BOTH her male and female children. Thats basically why both men and women carry mtDNA (and X chromosome) which is from their mother. The father passes the Y-DNA or Y-chromosome to his son only.

Thus we get the basic human biology (of the sex chromosomes) of males been ‘XY’ (X from mother and Y from father) in composition while females been ‘XX’ (one X from mother and other X from father) !

mtDNA from the mother plays a very important role in determining many features of a child (male/female). In fact mtDNA (thus mother) has a lot to contribute to physical characters and traits of her children.

I hope I have been clear and not confused you more….. Any more queries are welcome.