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How to figure out what Y SNPs are tested at 23andme

Feb23

Those of us who are tested at 23andme and have also done the Y STR test at family tree DNA may wonder when some family tree DNA project manager says “Test SNP so and so” whether that SNP is already tested by 23andme. This post explains how to figure that out. If I have already lost you, then this post may just be too technical or else not your cup of tea. To better understand Y testing read this Y lesson by Kelly Wheaton.

For a good explanation of what a STR versus a SNP is, read Roberta Estes’ post – http://dna-explained.com/2014/02/10/strs-vs-snps-multiple-dna-personalities

So to figure out which SNPs my Dad has already tested, I first created the L11 subset image below of the R1b Y haplogroup SNPs from the beautiful diagram created for R1b by Mike Walsh because I need visuals:

R1bL11

Back to the original question. My Dad is an R1b etc and 23andme uses a four year old haplogroup designator rather than the current ISOGG R haplogroup listing. A visitor to this blog suggested that we test DF100 because that is an interesting subclade we may belong to since we have these SNPs according to 23andme: L11/PF6539/S127, L52/PF6541, P310/PF6546/S129, P311/PF6545/S128.

The diagram shows that the possible downstream SNPs for Dad are U106, DF100, and P312. So how to find out if they are tested at 23andme? Since the haplogroup at 23andme shows L52 as the last SNP can I assume the others are tested?

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About 23andme Testing

May7

Recently I convinced several cousins to test their DNA at 23andme since the price is now only $99 – 23andme is pushing to get one million subscribers. The idea is that by having a large enough database with subscribers that answer their health and trait surveys, correlations can be found with the genes responsible. 23andme has already contributed greatly to the current knowledge of DNA using this technique. So I feel particularly good about being a part of that. Click here for the list  of correlations that they have so far.

What they do is not a complete genome sequencing, just the markers that are most likely to be different from one person to the next. Remember we share about 98.5% of our genome with chimpanzees and 99.9% with other humans. These tests use a microchip array that actually tests about .o2% of your  genome.

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The Basics at 23andMe

Apr7

My family members asked me to write a 23andme tutorial, so here it is. Let me know what else I should put here.

The three things most people like best at 23andme are learning about their health issues (currently disabled for new kits because of the FDA ruling),  their ancestral places of origin, and finding DNA cousins (my term for people who share DNA that thus, must be related, however distantly). There is a wealth of other fun information available like how much Neanderthal DNA you have in you, but this post will mainly just cover those first three areas.

When you log in to 23andme you will see a page something like this.

Home Page at 23andme

You can click on Home in that top bar from any page on the site to return to this page. The ancestry composition box shown mid-page may not yet be ready for your sample if your results are just in.

To edit your profile, click on your name or photo on the  far top right to get a menu with that option. If you have any messages the envelope at the top right will get a green background and show the number of messages you have as in the example below.  Click on it to read them. I advise switching to email if you start to communicate with someone regularly as there are no tools to search the inbox unless you use chrome and the 23+ addon.
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Chrome Browser Tools for 23andme

Dec8

I just found out about two wonderful browser helpers for 23andme that work only in Chrome and installed them both. So far I am absolutely delighted with them.

  • 23++  totally redoes the 23andme inbox so you can search by name or subject. Since I have a few hundred messages by now this is essential. I had been continuing many conversations via email partly because the inbox at 23andme was so limited. This addon also adds functionality to the relative finder, as well as other features
  • 529andyou collects data in your local chrome mySQLlite database every time you look at the table comparison in the ancestry lab Family Inheritance Advanced and puts an icon on the far right side of the url box at the top that you can click to see this data

So my first effort with 529 was to look at my three 5th cousins that are all descended from Isaak and Sara Steinhardt:

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New Ancestry Composition Tool at 23andme

Dec7

There is a terrific new tool at 23andme for looking at your ancestry. Cece Moore describes it in great detail on her blog post here. I very much like the chromosome mapping part but the colors are incredibly boring if all your ancestors were european. Just shades of blue that were hard to distinguish one from another. So I changed the colors for Finnish, British, Ashkenazi, Eastern and non-specific Southern European

Here is my picture (I am half Norwegian and half German with half of the German being jewish, so a quarter Ashkenazi):

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