DNA could reveal surname - research

Last Modified: 08 Oct 2008
Source: PA News

A man's DNA may contain enough information to reveal his surname, new research shows.

The discovery could one day help police track down suspects or discover the identity of murder victims.

DNA from a stray hair or blood spot could be analysed and checked against information in databases to show the likely surname of the unknown person.

The pioneering work is being carried out at the University of Leicester's Department of Genetics, where Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys invented genetic fingerprinting in 1984.

Scientists carried out a study of around 2,500 men with more than 500 different surnames. The aim was to see if men with the same surname had an identifiable genetic signature written into their Y chromosomes. Like a surname, the Y chromosome - which confers maleness - is only passed from father to son.

Study leader Dr Turi King said: "A link could exist between a man's surname and the type of Y chromosome he carries. A simple link between name and Y chromosome could in principle connect all men sharing a surname into one large family tree. However, in reality the link may not be so clear cut. Hereditary surnames in Britain are many hundreds of years old and each name may have had several founders. Events such as adoption, name changes and non-paternities would confuse any simple genetic link."

A number of factors could break the link between surnames and Y chromosome type, said Dr King. For example, there could have been more than one "surname founder" who took on a name when surnames first appeared around 700 years ago.

Dr King's team found a 24% chance of two men with the same surname sharing a common ancestor. This increased to 50% when the surname was rare. An in-depth look at 40 surnames showed that 70% of men with more unusual names - such as Attenborough and Swindlehurst - had identical or very similar Y chromosome types.

"The fact that such a strong link exists between surname and Y chromosome type has a potential use in forensic science, since it suggests that, given large databases of names and Y chromosome profiles, surname prediction from DNA alone may be feasible," said Dr King.

The research was being presented at the Doctoral Inaugural Lectures being held at the University of Leicester.

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