Product Description
The Genetic Strand is the story of a writer's investigation, using DNA science, into the tale of his family's origins. National Book Award winner Edward Ball has turned his probing gaze on the microcosm of the human genome, and not just any human genome -- that of his slave-holding ancestors. What is the legacy of such a family history, and can DNA say something about it?

In 2000, after a decade in New York City, Ball bought a house in Charleston, South Carolina, home to his father's family for generations, and furnished it with heirloom pieces from his relatives. In one old desk he was startled to discover a secret drawer, sealed perhaps since the Civil War, in which someone had hidden a trove of family hair, with each lock of hair labeled and dated. The strange find propelled him to investigate: what might DNA science reveal about the people -- Ball's family members, long dead -- to whom the hair had belonged? Did the hair come from white relatives, as family tradition insisted? How can genetic tests explain personal identity?

Part crime-scene investigation, part genealogical romp, The Genetic Strand is a personal odyssey into DNA and family history. The story takes the reader into forensics labs where technicians screen remains, using genetics breakthroughs like DNA fingerprinting, and into rooms where fathers nervously await paternity test results. It also summons the writer¹s entertaining and idiosyncratic family, such as Ball¹s antebellum predecessor, Aunt Betsy, who published nutty books on good Southern society; Kate Fuller, the enigmatic ancestor who may have introduced African genes into the Ball family pool; and the author¹s first cousin Catherine, very much alive, who donates a cheek swab from a mouth more attuned to sweet iced tea than DNA sampling.

Writing gracefully but pacing his story like an old-fashioned whodunit, Edward Ball tracks genes shared across generations, adding suspense and personal meaning to what the scientists and Nobel laureates tell us. A beguiling DNA tale, The Genetic Strand reaches toward a new form of writing‹the genetic memoir. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

The Genetic Strand: Exploring a Family History Through DNA
I was really excited in the beginning when he first got his results, but; he really got to many places doing his testing for him.He should have only have chosen a couple of people to test his DNA.Oh, well the book was still a good read and story.I enjoyed it.Thank you.


Karen Kay Ullom

Of special interest to the thoughtful reader with Southern roots
There's "genealogy" and there's "family history" -- and then there's the full-dress collective biography of a family, which is much more difficult to create, much less to make interesting to those outside the family. Ball's very successful first attempt at the art was _Slaves in the Family,_ which won the National Book Award in 1998, and is a compelling and enormously fascinating work of research and storytelling. A Georgia boy with deep South Carolina roots, he came into possession a few years later of a very old desk, a family heirloom, in which he discovered a secret drawer, which in turn held a secret trove of locks of hair from family members of a century and a half in the past, all tied up in little paper packets and carefully identified. A couple of decades ago, this would have been merely a slightly bizarre curiosity, but with recent advances in the biosciences, Ball knew immediately that he would have to investigate whatever DNA remained in the hair samples. Not being a scientist, he went to the experts for testing and analysis. This very readable volume is the story of that investigation, with full explanations of the technical background written in as uncomplicated language as it's possible to be with such a subject. (And he doesn't always get the details of the science right, I'm told, but neither would most of us be able to.) Being in many ways a classic Southerner, Ball knew a great deal about his family -- or thought he did. But as the results of the analysis began to come in, the story he was expecting to tell changed completely. He wasn't quite who he had thought he was. Except for reference volumes, I confess I don't often buy works of nonfiction; that's what public libraries are for. But I bought _Slaves in the Family_ (and have read it twice) and I bought this one. I recommend it unreservedly, especially to Southerners.

nothing here folks - move along, move along
Southern author finds locks of hair from ancestors.Has them analyzed for DNA.Finds nothing.

There you have it.That's pretty much the whole book.Now, I HAVE spared you:

* Tortured musings about what it all means
* Opaque explanations of all the science involved
* Long, convoluted descriptions of the kin and how they're all related
* Boring, shallow descriptions of the modern-day people involved (scientists, relatives), mostly focusing on predictable things like height, hair, clothes
* An oddly subdued, rather flattened style that seems to take the air out of everything

The author really seems to be making a living out of this ancestry thing.Now, it may have worked for Slaves in the Family (Ballantine Reader's Circle), but it definitely doesn't work here.Promising topic, but almost no real development.

An idea with promise, but mistakes and meanderings hinder the book
This book started with so much promise and such an interesting premise---the author finds lots of stored locks of hair in a hidden drawer of a dresser that belonged to his ancestors.He decides to try to have the DNA in the hair tested to find out more about the past of his family.

However, the promise pretty quickly fades away.There are no really interesting results from the hair that hold up, and I get the feeling that the author therefore had to use a lot of filler---long long disgressions about various scientists at the labs he goes to, detailed scientific descriptions which, while informative, don't really fit in with the rest of the book, and then various DNA tests on living family members in order to somehow find SOMETHING interesting.

The most jarring problem with the book for me was the scientific inaccuracies.I have a strong interest in genetics, but am certainly a layman on the topic, but I know the kind of hemophilia that Queen Victoria was a carrier for was NOT a recessive kind, but rather X linked, a huge difference.There are a couple other mistakes of this kind here and there, which always makes me wonder about the parts of the book I am not sure of the facts about---are they correct or not?

The most interesting parts of the book for me were the old family stories.The author has an interesting family past, and he is a good writer overall---I wish he had just written a family history that perhaps had the genetic testing as a small part of the story.

Serendipitous Knowledge
The author comes upon some "hairlooms" and shares what he learns as he pursues DNA analysis on them.

The book rambles.He writes something of his slave holding ancestors and some bits and pieces about DNA.Most interesting to me were the current uses and potential uses of DNA from hair, bone, blood, saliva, etc. and how researchers characterize the patterns of human migration that DNA research has unlocked.

Interviews with living family members and DNA researchers are prefaced with some descriptions about their personal style and/or their office or home.Some descriptions carry a slightly negative tone which isn't called for in such a book.Similarly, the book ends with Ball's takes on science journalism and current students preparing for careers in DNA sciences, which are more gratuitously negative. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Genetics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 824 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.A comprehensive collection of articles on all aspects of genetics, from Mendel to the decoding of the human genome. Explains the workings of genes and chromosomes, genetic diseases, and biotechnology. Covers the ethical, legal, and social issues connected to genetic science and includes coverage of careers in the field. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Genetics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 978 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.A comprehensive collection of articles on all aspects of genetics, from Mendel to the decoding of the human genome. Explains the workings of genes and chromosomes, genetic diseases, and biotechnology. Covers the ethical, legal, and social issues connected to genetic science and includes coverage of careers in the field. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume covers the molecular aspects of mitochondrial disorders and their diagnosis with particular emphasis on the mitochondrial tRNA structure and its various mutations. It further describes some key nuclear-encoded proteins involved in energy transduction and presents new aspects of mitochondrial DNA, e.g. its in vivo conformational changes, and models of deletions and partition. Moreover, it discusses the involvement of mitochondria in apoptosis, hormonal response and ageing. This volume also investigates the precise molecular import mechanisms of particular proteins and specific tRNAs into plants and yeast mitochondria relevant to human diseases. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

mitochondrial diseases at a glance
It s very useful book for generalists, pathologists and neurologists. ... Read more

Product Description
In October 1995, the 1st Colloquium on Mitochondria andMyopathies in Halle/Saale was organized in Halle/Saale by the editorsof this focused issue. The meeting took up what might be called anEast German tradition: from 1976 to 1990 Andreas Schmidt organizedseven clinically orientated Colloquia on Myology in Jena, and from1974 to 1990 a series of twelve Colloquia on Mitochondria focused onbasic research aspects was arranged by Wolfgang Kunz in Magdeburg. Atthose meetings, East Germany was a mediator between East European,West European and American scientists. In continuation of thistradition, scientists from more than 17 countries working onmitochondria as neurologists, biochemists, geneticists, or asphysiologists came to Halle. The title of the colloquium indicated thecombination of both basic and clinical mitochondrial research. Themost important contributions of this meeting are now published in thisfocused issue. We thank all authors for their patience and cooperationthat have made it possible to produce this unique collection of papersrepresenting current knowledge on detection of mitochondrial causes ofdiseases. We especially thank Prof. N.S. Dhalla for making it possibleto publish these contributions together in this focused issue and alsoas a hard-cover book. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Human Biology, published by Wayne State University Press on December 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1387 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Mitochondrial DNA Variant 11719G Is a Marker for the mtDNA Haplogroup Cluster HV.
Author: Juliette Saillard
Publication: Human Biology (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2000
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Volume: 72Issue: 6Page: 1065

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Human Biology, published by Wayne State University Press on June 1, 2004. The length of the article is 8256 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: KEY WORDS: MTDNA, HAPLOGROUPS, RFLP, AZORES, HIERARCHICAL APPROACH TO HAPLOGROUP SCREENING.

Citation Details
Title: Determination of human Caucasian mitochondrial DNA haplogroups by means of a hierarchical approach.
Author: Cristina Santos
Publication: Human Biology (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2004
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Volume: 76Issue: 3Page: 431(23)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Human Biology, published by Wayne State University Press on October 1, 2003. The length of the article is 6073 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: KEY WORDS: MITOCHONDRIAL DNA, POLYMORPHISM, HAPLOGROUP EASTERN SLAVONIC POPULATIONS

Citation Details
Title: Mitochondrial DNA variations in Russian and Belorussian populations.
Author: Olga Belyaeva
Publication: Human Biology (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2003
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Volume: 75Issue: 5Page: 647(14)

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This digital document is a journal article from Biological Conservation, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The red kite (Milvus milvus) occurs in a relatively small area in the southwestern Palearctic region, with population strongholds in Central Europe. Following strong human persecutions at the beginning of the 20th century, populations have receded, particularly in peripheral areas and islands. In order to describe and compare levels of genetic diversity and phylogeographic patterns throughout its entire distribution in Europe, sequence variation of a 357 bps part of the mitochondrial DNA control region was assessed in eight populations and 105 individuals. Overall, results indicate that population declines have affected red kite mtDNA variation. We found low levels of genetic diversity (values of nucleotide diversity ranging from 0 in Majorca island to 0.0062 in Central Europe), with only 10 distinct haplotypes, separated by low levels of genetic divergence (mean sequence divergence=0.75%). Highest haplotype and nucleotide diversities match with demographic expectations, and were found in Central European and Central Spanish samples, where present strongholds occur, and lowest values in the declining southern Spanish and insular samples. @Fst estimates indicated moderate gene flow between populations. Phylogeographic patterns and mismatch distributions analyses suggest central European regions may have been colonized from southern glacial refugia (in the Italian or Iberian peninsulas). Interspecific phylogenetic comparisons and divergence date estimates indicated the genetic split between the red kite and its closely related species, the black kite (Milvus migrans), might be relatively recent. The low level of genetic variation found in the red kite mitochondrial control region, compared to the black kite, is likely the result of relatively recent divergence (associated with founder events), successive bottlenecks and small population sizes. As there are several ongoing projects aimed at reinforcing populations in countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy or Spain, our results may prove useful for the genetic management of the species. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Human Biology, published by Wayne State University Press on August 1, 1994. The length of the article is 2517 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: The polymorphism of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was studied in 118 unrelated Greeks (from northern Greece) using total blood cell DNA and the restriction enzymes HpaI, BamHI, HaeII, MspI, AvaII, and HincII. One new morph was identified for MspI (named MspI morph [18.sup.Gr]) and is the result of a mutation in a previously thought monomorphic site at 104 bp. HpaI morph 1 was detected for the first time in a European sample. Also, AvaII morph 13 was observed in Greece in a frequency higher (5.93%) than that found in any other population. Eighteen mtDNA types were identified, three of which are new [86-2 (1-3-1-4-9-2), 87-2 (2-3-1-1-13-2), and 88-2 (2-1-1-[18.sup.Gr]-1-2)] and can be derived from already known mtDNA types by single restriction site changes. Type 57-2 (2-3-1-4-13-2), which had been previously characterized as "Italian," was found with higher frequency (4.24%) in northern Greece. The calculation of genetic distances and chi-square values through Monte Carlo simulation shows that the Greek sample does not differ from the Italian sample.

Citation Details
Title: Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism in Northern Greece.
Author: A. Astrinidis
Publication: Human Biology (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 1994
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Volume: v66Issue: n4Page: p601(11)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Genetics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3384 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.A comprehensive collection of articles on all aspects of genetics, from Mendel to the decoding of the human genome. Explains the workings of genes and chromosomes, genetic diseases, and biotechnology. Covers the ethical, legal, and social issues connected to genetic science and includes coverage of careers in the field. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Texas Journal of Science, published by Texas Academy of Science on May 1, 2002. The length of the article is 4896 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Mitochondrial DNA analysis of gene flow among six populations of collared lizards (Crotaphytus collaris) in west central Texas.
Author: James H. Campbell
Publication: The Texas Journal of Science (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2002
Publisher: Texas Academy of Science
Volume: 54Issue: 2Page: 151(12)

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This digital document is a journal article from Mut.Res.-Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Many common environmental pollutants, together with nuclear radiation, are recognized as genotoxic. There is, however, very little information on pollution-related genetic effects on free-living animal populations, especially in terrestrial ecosystems. We investigated whether genetic diversity in two small insectivorous passerines, the great tit (Parus major) and the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), was changed near point sources of heavy metals (two copper smelters) or radioactive isotopes (nuclear material reprocessing plant). We measured concentration of heavy metals and nucleotide diversity in mitochondrial DNA in feather samples taken from nestlings in multiple polluted areas and at control sites. In both species, heavy metal concentrations - especially of arsenic - were increased in feathers collected at smelter sites. The P. major population living near a smelter showed significantly higher nucleotide diversity than a control population in an unpolluted site, suggesting increased mutation rates in a polluted environment. On the contrary, F. hypoleuca showed reduced nucleotide diversity at both smelter sites but increased nucleotide diversity near the source of radioactivity. Our results show that heavy metal pollution and low level nuclear radiation affect the nucleotide diversity in two free-living insectivorous passerines. We suggest that the different response in these two species may be due to their different ability to handle toxic compounds in the body. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from Biological Conservation, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The strong hunting pressure on the red-legged partridge, Alectoris rufa, warranted its inclusion into the list of species of European conservation concern. During the last decades, restocking plans with farmed specimens have counterbalanced the hunting drawings from wild populations. Our concern was the study of A. rufa in the easternmost part of its range, the central Italy, to gain insights into the effects of this compensation practice on the genetic structure of its populations. Partridges from both a geographically isolated, long-time protected, wild population (Pianosa island, Tuscan Archipelago National Park) and two Tuscan farms (Bieri and Scarlino) were investigated. All the specimens were very similar in outward appearance, looking much like to A. rufa. Ninety-six sequences of both Cytochrome b and D-loop Control Region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were analysed to get evidence of ancestry at the population level, whereas, the Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was employed to get fingerprinting at the individual level. Pianosa and Bieri populations showed both the A. rufa and Alectoris chukar mtDNA lineages, whereas the Scarlino one only the A. rufa-mtDNA line. However, a spread overall pattern of A. rufaxA. chukar hybridisation among specimens, whatever their mtDNA lineage could result to be, was disclosed by means of RAPD species-specific markers. This is the first genetically documented record of the A. rufaxA. chukar hybrids. The occurrence of the pure, native A. rufa genome in the easternmost part of the species' geographical range may be guessed to be virtual. ... Read more