About This Project

This was the first phase of our fundraising campaign to support our fieldwork in Cameroon. We were very successful, thanks to many generous friends! In our second phase, to fund lab work and testing supplies, we're aiming higher; we need to raise at least $8000 by Nov. 9th, 2013. Please come to our Round 2 campaign at: www.microryza.com/A00!

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What is the context of this research?

Our research forms a part of the wider, global human project to understand the family tree that connects us all, both on a large scale and in detail. In 2012, we found a branch on the human Y-chromosome phylogenetic tree, haplogroup A00, that's far older than any other branch previously known, having its origins at the dawn of the human species' emergence. The only peoples on earth it's known to exist among are a few African-Americans, and Cameroonians of certain ethnic groups.

This research will begin to give us a picture of its true distribution and history. By collecting samples from a diverse range of ethnic groups in Cameroon, starting with those where A00 is known to occur, we hope to map it, and by analyzing the patterns of relationship between different A00 lineages, and the complex histories of these peoples, with their widely varying social structures and ecological adaptations, we hope to understand much more about A00's place in human history.

What is the significance of this project?

The human family tree is being revolutionized by the massive data becoming available through next-generation DNA sequencing. We're gaining a tremendous amount of detail about the multitudes of small, recent branches...but we can also delve deeper into our earliest history as a species.

Historian Matthew Fomine Forka Leypey, of the Mbo ethnic group, gathered the African samples we studied in our ground-breaking paper published in the AJHG in March 2013. Data from his other previously collected but now-inaccessible samples show that A00 can be found among a variety of peoples of Cameroon, which is a world biodiversity hotspot. By collecting fresh samples among peoples of Mbo, Bangwa, Bamileke, Banyang, and Baka, Gyele and Bedzan ethnicities, performing more advanced sequencing of them than was previously possible, and combining the results with local, historical and ethnographic knowledge of these peoples, we hope to gain a much clearer picture of who our A00 brothers really are, and glimpse some of their long journey.

What are the goals of the project?

UPDATE (7/23): $5,000 Stretch Goal
Wow!! We're so excited that we reached our initial goal of $2500 in our first ~25 hours of fundraising! But that's only the beginning. Our overall research plan includes five field trips to sample peoples in different regions of the country. We'll be needing about $2500 for each trip. With $5000, Matthew should be able to make two trips right away, before the fall semester begins. A total of $12,600 is in our projected budget for the fieldwork. After each trip, there will be lots of DNA testing at various labs. The thoroughness and depth of the testing we can do will be determined by the funding we receive. We'll post more soon on the specific kinds of tests we hope to have done. So please keep chipping in -- every donation will be needed!
In the first trip, Matthew will travel to the remote rural villages where he was raised, in the mountainous, forested Nkongho-Mbo region, and collect at least 100 samples from three villages, which will then be sent to a lab to be screened for A00. More in-depth testing will focus on those A00 samples.
Planning and discussions are underway regarding which labs, probably more than one, will perform both SNP and STR testing on the samples. A full Y-chromosome sequence is on our wish list.