How To Get Fast Databases of DNA
Recent papers about George Washington and Beethoven make historical DNA a public good -- and encourage public participation
A recent historical project focused on confirming the identities of George Washington’s paternal grandnephews and their mother, Lucy Payne, was published this past week.
An excavation conducted at Harewood Cemetery to identify the unmarked grave of Samuel Washington resulted in the discovery of burials presumably belonging to George Washington’s paternal grand-nephews and their mother, Lucy Payne. To confirm their identities, this study examined Y-chromosomal, mitochondrial, and autosomal DNA from the burials and a living Washington descendant. The burial’sY-STR profile was compared to FamilyTreeDNA’s database, which resulted in a one-step difference from the living descendant and an exact match to another Washington. A more complete Y-STR and Y-SNP profile from the descendant was inferred to be the Washington Y profile. Kinship comparisons performed in relation to the descendant, who is a 4th and 5th-degree relative of the putative individuals, resulted in >37,000 overlapping autosomal SNPs and strong statistical support with likelihood ratios exceeding one billion. This study highlights the benefits of a multi-marker approach for kinship prediction and DNA-assisted identification of historical remains.
It’s worth reading the study in detail and remembering that the study included the work of the late James Starr, who passed away in 2021. Worth reading about his work, too, as chronicled here.
Washington’s family isn’t alone in wanting to investigate the past.
We should be collecting the DNA of eminent people and individuals — and allowing the public to compare their own DNA to these eminent people.
And my understanding is that the Smithsonian Institution has a large collection of DNA already. It should be digitized quickly.
So, too, should the DNA that’s in places like the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, especially the Peter Browne collection of hair.
The 2018 book Specimens of Hair: The Curious Collection of Peter A. Browne is well worth reading on this subject:
Strangely beautiful, utterly unique, "Specimens of Hair" presents the obsessive work of a 19th-century amateur naturalist who collected hundreds upon hundreds of specimens of hair--animal and human, Including thirteen of the first fourteen U.S. presidents--in his quest to understand the mysteries of the natural world.
No matter who we are, old or young, fashion conscious or style indifferent, we are all aware of hair. We wash it; we comb it; we cut, curl, and dye it. Hair can be envied or derided, and hair can provide clues to everything from age to culture to genetic identity to health. To a nineteenth-century amateur naturalist named Peter A. Browne, hair was of paramount importance: he believed it was the single physical attribute that could unravel the mystery of human evolution.
Thirty years before Charles Darwin revolutionized understanding of the descent of man, Browne vigorously collected for study what he called the “pile” (from the Latin word for hair, pilus) of as wide a variety of humans (and animals) as possible in his quest to account for the differences and similarities between groups of humans. The result of his diligent, obsessive work is a fastidious, artfully assembled twelve-volume archive of mammalian diversity.
Browne’s growing quest for knowledge became an all-consuming specimen-collecting passion. By the time of his death in 1860, Browne had assembled samples from innumerable wild and domestic animals, as well as the largest known study collection of human hair. He obtained hair from people from all parts of the globe and all walks of life: artists, scientists, abolitionist ministers, doctors, writers, politicians, financiers, military leaders, and even prisoners, sideshow performers, and lunatics. His crowning achievement was a gathering of hair from thirteen of the first fourteen presidents of the United States. The pages of his albums, some spare, some ornately decorated, many printed ducit amor patriae―led by love of country―are distinctly idiosyncratic, captivating, and powerfully evocative of a vanished world.
Absolutely worth digitizing the lot of it!
I can see the app now: How closely related to your favorite Founding Father are you?
You could even imagine the Sons of the American Revolution or some other group sponsoring the sequencing.
I read — where else? — in the Smithsonian Magazine that there have been fascinating insights into Beethoven’s health condition from his hair.
Here’s the key paragraphs from the Smithsonian Magazine:
…scientists have taken the closest look yet at the composer’s health by analyzing DNA extracted from preserved locks of his hair, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology.
The team sequenced two-thirds of Beethoven’s genome and examined it for clues on what might have led to his illnesses. They found that he was genetically predisposed to liver disease and had hepatitis B, at least in the months leading up to his death.
“I love this paper. Zeroing in on one extraordinarily famous individual—it feels a little bit like time travel,” Robert C. Green, a medical geneticist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who did not contribute to the research, tells the Washington Post’s Carolyn Y. Johnson. “It isn’t so much the specific questions they answered as the fact that they ruled a few things out, searched for others, and made some truly original findings.”
Several of Beethoven’s friends kept locks of his hair, which was common practice at that time. The researchers extracted DNA from eight preserved locks thought to have come from the composer’s head. Other research projects had unsuccessfully tried to extract genetic material from Beethoven’s remains, but recent advances in sequencing DNA from very old samples made this new attempt possible, writes Nature News’ Dyani Lewis.
…
One of the locks did not yield enough DNA to study, and another proved to be inauthentic. One seemed to come from a woman of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. But five had DNA that matched, indicating they came from the same person of European descent—and they had damage patterns one would expect in samples from the time of Beethoven’s death. This evidence suggests that they were truly from the composer.
“The fact that they have so many independent locks of hair, with different histories, that all match one another is compelling evidence that this is bona fide DNA from Beethoven,” Ed Green, an ancient DNA expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who did not participate in the research, tells the New York Times’ Gina Kolata.
From the hair samples, the researchers didn’t find any genetic evidence explaining Beethoven’s hearing loss or gastrointestinal problems. They could not explain the severe abdominal pain he suffered as an adult or his “prolonged bouts of diarrhea,” per the paper.
They did, however, find evidence to suggest a few explanations could be nearly ruled out: It was highly unlikely that the gastrointestinal issues were caused by lactose intolerance or celiac disease and not likely that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) was to blame.
Might I suggest that the Smithsonian lead the way on these efforts? I’d argue it’s already within their remit.
I have been attending a lot of concerts at events run by the Friends of Smithsonian where they play medieval instruments.
These musical instruments need to be played or they risk falling into disrepair.
In some cases the instruments will be lent out to promising musicians who will master the instruments as other musicians did before them.
A dear friend of mine was playing on one of the Smithsonian instruments the other day in my home. What a thrill it was to be transported back in time to the 17th century music!
The Smithsonian could do the same thing for all the human DNA in its collection. It already offers “genetic loans” for the fauna in its collection. Why not just extend it to one more species — us?