DNA results for Tut's lineage

[circumspice]

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pathology/G ... logy/18501
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/02/ ... test=faces

The links above are some of the many that I found today on the web in reference to the DNA testing of the 18th Dynasty ruling family in Egypt.
What irks me is the HUGE amount of dross on the web, also, concerning the same subject. I tried googling KV21A and was unable to find
anything significant on the subject. Even my favorite websites don't contain any detailed info on the following: KV21A, possibly the mummy
of Ankhesenamum; or KV35YL, possibly Kiya or an unnamed sister of Akhenaten. The articles stated that KV55 and KV35YL tested to be full siblings,
and that they are the parents of Tut. KV55 has been confirmed to be the son of KV35 and KV35EL, so that should identify him as Akhenaten. KV21A
seems to have tested to be the mother of the stillborn daughters of Tut. (they're a little bit equivocal on that point, however.) The rest of the positively
identified relatives of Tut's are well know and studied. (i.e. Yuya and Thuya, KV35EL as Tiye, KV35 as Amenhotep III, etc.) Does anyone know of any
websites that have better info on KV35YL, KV35EL and KV21A?

[Minimalist]

Pop culture can handle "King Tut."

"Ankhesenamumn" is really asking too much of them. In time, some scholarly journal will discuss the DNA testing in depth.

[MichelleH]

Here's another source for you:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/561303/

And the abstract of the original paper:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/sh ... 7/638?home

[Minimalist]

One wonders how much DNA difference there would be between Ankh-es-en-amun and her 5 sisters, though. All 6 were children of Ahkenaten and Nerfertiti.

[Leona Conner]

Heard on this morning's news about the DNA test showing that Tut died of complications of a broken leg, malaria and had a cleft palet. Never knew you could tell all this from 'DNA'

[Minimalist]

The broken leg scenario dates back a couple of years to an MRI. I don't recall exactly but they found some sort of structure in the knee which forms while the body is trying to fight off an infection.

[Leona Conner]

Remember something about that from some show I watched. But never knew that you could tell cause of death by the DNA, always thought that was stuff you inherited.

[Minimalist]

This line in the article is not particularly well-developed, Leona.

From September 2007 to October 2009, royal mummies underwent detailed anthropological, radiological, and genetic studies (DNA was extracted from 2 to 4 different biopsies per mummy).

The radiological tests found the leg injury but the article is shoddy about it.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Anyway, with his parents being an incestuous brother and sister, it turns out that the curse of Tutanchamun was inbreeding... Small wonder he was a 'sickly' young man, and suffered all kinds of ailments and handicaps.

[dannan14]

Anyway, with his parents being an incestuous brother and sister, it turns out that the curse of Tutanchamun was inbreeding... Small wonder he was a 'sickly' young man, and suffered all kinds of ailments and handicaps.

Wasn't it normal for Pharoah to marry his full sister? i thought it was to keep the dynasty "purely divine".

[Digit]

Again i find myself taking a view different from the 'accepted' line. Inbreeding does not necessarily result in weaklings, it can in fact be used to produce 'desirable' traits and is the means by which every breed of domestic animal and pet has been achieved.

Roy.

[Minimalist]

But it doesn't seem to work that way with humans, Dig.

Wonder why not?



(P.S. Dog breeders have sculpted German shepherds to the point where the poor things can barely walk any more. So it is not exactly a one-way street to Happy City.)

[Digit]

It would work with humans if the parents were selected as we do with cattle for example.
The dog problem, a subject of intense debate over here Min, is due to breeders imposing their requirements onto the breed.

Roy.

[Minimalist]

I'm reading Dawkins' "Greatest Show on Earth" right now and he discusses how all dogs derived from wolves. Now, we have hundreds of breeds all of which were designed by humans.

It seems to me that the problem is that the breeders can't stop tinkering. In other words, they are screwing with it until it breaks.

[Digit]

Yep! Where there's a market there will be a supply, many breeds suffer now from 'design faults' which, over here, the Kennel Club, under pressure, is finally beinning to address.

Roy.