Revealing close and distant relatives in ancient DNA with unprecedented precision

Scientists have developed a new computational tool to detect up to second to third degree cousins using ancient genomes. Shedding new light on the live of our ancestors, and their mobility. Researchers developed a new computational method that enables them to detect relatives up to the sixth degree. © 123RF | hecke - If two persons are biologically related, they share long stretches of DNA that they co-inherited from their recent common ancestor. These almost identically shared stretches of genomes are called IBD ("Identity by Descent") segments. Up to the sixth-degree relatives - such as second to third cousins would be, or a great great great great grand parent - the two relatives even share multiple IBD segments. Personal genomics companies such as 23andme or Ancestry detect those segments routinely in DNA of their customers, and use this signal to distinctively reveal biological relatives in their databases.