Admixture: Ancestry that originates from more than one ethnic and/or racial group.
Autosomal DNA: DNA from any chromosome that is not an X or Y sex-chromosome.
Common ancestor: A person to whom two or more descendants can be linked.
Ethnicity: Determined by strong racial, national, or cultural ties as well as similar customs, beliefs, and language.
Hypervariable region (HVR): Found in mitochondrial DNA - HSV-1 and HSV-2 are the most commonly analyzed sections. HVR sequence information can be used to determine your haplogroup, which corresponds to a different region of the world. Haplogroups can also determine when groups of people diverged from the originating haplogroups in Africa during human migration.
Lineage: The descendants of one individual also known as a common ancestor.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA): DNA found in the energy producing structures of cells, the mitochondria. Chromosomal DNA is found in the cell nucleus.
Race: Sharing physical or genetic similarity; defined by common descent, heredity, or geographical location. Sometimes used interchangeably with “ethnicity.”
Short tandem repeats (STR): Short sequences of DNA that repeat a number of times. The number of repetitions vary between individuals. For example, the DYS388 marker is made up of the DNA bases A-T-T and may be repeated 10 to 16 times in a row.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP): Differences of one DNA base between individuals.
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