Lost Colony DNA Project - Types of DNA Testing

Types of DNA Testing

The Lost Colony of Roanoke DNA Project utilizes the following types of DNA tests:

Y chromosome DNA Testing follows the paternal ancestral line. The paternal line follows the surname. The Y chromosome is passed from father to son, so this kind of testing is conducive to surname projects. This type of testing will be used with those believed to be descendants of those whose surnames are of interest to this project. This type of testing not only links people genealogically, but can indicate individuals of Native American and African ancestry.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing follows the maternal line and has long been used to track patterns of human migration. It was originally believed that only women pass their mtDNA to their children of both sexes. It has since been proven that paternal transmission of mtDNA does very rarely occur in human beings. It is possible that knowledge of paternal mtDNA was not available when this project was first started; in any case paternal mtDNA transmission is extremely rare and highly unlikely to affect tests except when the sample size is unduly small. Mitochondrial DNA is also usually the last surviving DNA, because it is present in larger amounts than nuclear DNA, and so it would likely be the type of testing to use on the skeletons most likely to yield robust results.

Autosomal DNA testing is different from yline and mtDNA. Autosomal DNA is the DNA where offspring receive 50% from each parent (as opposed to yline and mtDNA where there is no DNA from the other parent involved). Because of this 50% mixture rate from each generation, autosomal DNA testing today is not reliably relevant for genealogical testing. The data bases available for autosomal comparison for genealogical purposes are not yet mature. The Lost Colony DNA Project is not actively pursuing autosomal testing, but will include those tests in its records for those who have already been individually tested.