The FGS (Full Genomic Sequence) test analyses the entire mtDNA genome, all 16,569 or so base pairs of it. Included in the test would be the analysis of both HyperVariable Regions (HVR1 and HVR2), each of which has about 500 base pairs. If either HVR has already been tested, then it will be re-tested as a quality assurance measure.
Yes, they will have full access to their own results as soon as FamilyTreeDNA performs the genetic analysis. The results will be presented to individual participants through their personal webpage with FamilyTreeDNA, where the features that are normally provided to FamilyTreeDNA clients will be available.
Yes, all participants will be informed when our research findings get published. Please be patient though, as the peer review process for scientific journals can be quite time consuming.
Yes and no. The FamilyTreeDNA system that we are using to help manage the project has a feature that lets us send out emails to all project participants. This feature is one-way in nature, meaning that the participants themselves cannot send such messages. There is no facility to enable interested non-participants to receive emails that we send to the group of participants.
To a great extent, the value you perceive will depend on your personal situation. A summary of some possible benefits follows:
Maybe, but this is beyond the scope of our research project.
Maybe. This might happen when you first get your FGS test results, if you happen to have a haplotype for which the HVR-based classification scheme disagrees with the current Coding Region-based classification scheme. For instance, several people who are classified as T3, T4, or T5 via the HVR-based classification may be classified as belonging to the Coding Region-based T2 subgroup.
Part of the motivation for our project is to resolve such situations by developing a single classification scheme that utilises FGS results (i.e., both HVR and Coding Region data). Once we publish our research findings various people may then have their subgroup assignment updated, depending on the conclusions of our research.
Maybe. It is not our intent to search for such associations, but it is possible that mutations with known or suspected associations with medical or health conditions will be detected in some participants.
No member of the research team is a medical professional or practitioner, which means that we are not qualified to provide medical advice of any kind regarding any associations that might be found with medical or health conditions. If/when we happen to come across a paper in the scientific literature that we think establishes a strong connection between a mutation (or collection of mutations) and a particular condition, the best we could do is to contact people that we see have the mutations in question and advise them to seek the advice of a qualified medical practitioner or genetic counsellor. Even so, we are not obliged to inform participants if/when we observe a possible association between their mtDNA and a medical or health condition.
Yes. First and foremost, if you belong to mtDNA Haplogroup T, then you can join the project and contribute your FGS results to our dataset.
You can also spread word of this project to other people who might happen to be members of Haplogroup T. Our ability to successfully achieve our research goals increases in tandem with the number of FGS results that we have available to us.
Some people have approached us and asked about making monetary donations. If you wish to financially contribute to the T FGS Research Project, then you may do so by following these instructions. Donations will only be used to provide sponsorships for FGS tests, with unrepresented HVR haplotypes being given priority. We will provide more details once funds have been given time to accumulate and those haplotypes that are in need of representation become identified.