mtDNA L3e2* in a Sicilian-American

[vraatyah]

That's great! Mike, isn't your participant an American Caucasian too? Maybe that Illinois sample is Italian by descent.

[MMaddi]

That's great! Mike, isn't your participant an American Caucasian too? Maybe that Illinois sample is Italian by descent.

Yes, he's Caucasian, from Pennsylvania. His yDNA line is E3b. Comparing his haplotype to two Sicily Project members who have SNP-tested M81+, he is likely E3b-M81, which would indicate deep ancestry in North Africa for his paternal line.

[vraatyah]

Mike, do you have new 16K Genographic database at hand? Maybe, it contains the same haplotype, although they don't record samples origin. However, it would be interesting to see the frequency, because Americans are more likely to be GP customers than to fall into the database I compiled

[MMaddi]

Mike, do you have new 16K Genographic database at hand? Maybe, it contains the same haplotype, although they don't record samples origin. However, it would be interesting to see the frequency, because Americans are more likely to be GP customers than to fall into the database I compiled

Yes, I downloaded that database. There is no exact match for that haplotype. Here are the closest ones, with number of them found in parentheses:

16223T 16320T 16362C 16399G 16519C (1)
16223T 16320T 16390A 16399G 16519C (1)
16223T 16320T 16399G 16519C (11)
16223T 16320T 16519C (7)

As you can see, none of these have the 16325C mutation that the Sicily Project member has.

[vraatyah]

So, there are no close matches in the public database. We have 2 sequences, the first is forensic from a White American individual of unknown ethnicity, the second one is from a White individual whose origin is known, he is Italian. We can speculate that the first one is Italian too. My database contains about 5800 L records, some portion is from Europe, and many of European Ls have no close matches in present day Africans or African Americans. Probably, this lineage is present in Europe since the ancient times, although the database has not reached the size sufficient for such conclusions.