Originally posted by Jim Denning
Basically, these diagrams or cladograms are a visual representation of the TMRCA tables that you see in many DNA surname projects. In fact, the diagrams are generated out of a TMRCA table. But they show something else that the simple tables don't. Our premise is that just as it is possible to statistically "predict" a haplogroup by the allele values, it is also possible to "infer" the subclades by the pairwise genetic distance among haplotypes.
The software converts the units in the distance matrix (generations or years) to bifurcating branches that group the haplotypes into somewhat definable clusters. These clusters, assuming that distinct haplotypes are correlated to specific SNPs, should correspond to haplogroup subclades.
Right now we have just a few subclades confirmed by SNP and we haven't found a contradicting result yet. We're waiting for more SNP results from the E3b project participants to see it the software algorithm and the diagrams hold.
If you have any other question I'll try my best to answer it.
Victor
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