Dastur DNA L

The Dastur surname in the Parsi community has a lot of parallels to Cohen in the Jewish one. The surname implies you are in a line of priest-class; at least from the early days of arrival to the Indian subcontinent. Our Dastur DNA Surname study here will seek to understand if this has held true; as was shown to be the case for more than 50% with the surname Cohen (from a late 1990's study using early yDNA STR testing).

Y Haplogroup (SNP)

From our single tester to date, utilizing 23andMe yDNA SNP results, we have membership in Haplogroup L-M22 (L1). This group is fairly rare but exists mostly with the North Indian subcontinent. The existence of this haplogroup for the Parsi Dastur tester is not clarified if due to the Persian influence (true Parsi origin), Mogul influence in North India (Persian transplant later than the Parsi's that intermingled with the native Indian's there) or due to this claimed ancient source of the L haplogroup in the region. Most ethnicity reports, i.e. autosomal ad-mixture, do not distinguish these possible sources either. But if you see the table in the wikipedia entry that describes the occurrence of L in Iran, it states a strong predominance among Iranian Zoroastrians (>50%) and specifically lists Parsi's (which implies Zoroastrians in India). We have as yet to obtain the reference papers and study their findings.

While the simple y12 STR test predicted L-M20, the 23andMe basic SNP test indicates L-M22 (l1). And a single, GD 0 y12 match has an indication of L-M317 (L1b) for the haplogroup after having done y111 (and maybe a panel?)! Oddly, the BigY tree at FTDNA has a hundred testers down this branch but not much structure. There is more in their public tree than the BigY tree. See yFull.com L-M317 for much more branching. NevGen predicts, for a y37 test, the same L-M317 (L1b).

The Nebula Genomics 30x WGS test provides us a deeper haplogroup of L-FGC62980 (see yFull in that area). That leaf haplogroup on FamilyTreeDNA has over 35 sub-variants for the group. Go to the FamilyTreeDNA Public Tree L-FGC62980 branch. A link to the BigY tree is not available to the public.

Y Haplotype (STR)

yDNA STR testing is just starting for this group. Only to y37 at this point which NevGen gives as L1b (i.e. L-M317). At y37, the single STR match at y12 and y25 for our tester is no longer meeting the match cutoff criteria at y37. So not clear deeper testing will result in anything useful. And hence has stalled this work.

Mitochondrial Haplogroup

Mitochondrial haplogroups are not often used in genetic genealogy but are useful in population studies. See the references in the Parsi DNA study for more information. Our singular tester is in M4a3 and surrounded by mostly study entries but there are two consumer tested Iranian descent individuals.

Ad-mixture and Segment Analysis

Utilizing Autosomal DNA testing, we work to identify any common segments and markers for the Dastur clan.

To date, Parsi testing of autosomal DNA is near useless. All Parsi's match other Parsi's at 120 to 250 cM of total match strength. The longest segment ends up being a better predictor. Although even for unrelated Parsi's, this is often 20 to 25 cM. Studies of endogamous populations show traits such as Runs of Heterozygous (RoH) base-pairs to be an indicator of recent and ancient mixing. This may be needed to distinguish segments between nearer term relatives.

External References

• Haplogroup L at Cagetti, FTDNA Projects, Wikipedia, ISOGG Tree and yFull Tree
• 23andMe references this paper for information on yDNA Haplogroup L origins
• Avesta.org site about Zoroastrian terms, customs, and such
• Cohen surname study links: Intro report, Wikipedia Aaron, current FTDNA Cohen project (Cohen, like Dastur in Parsi's, is significant in the religious order it originates in and would imply a common yDNA match)

See Also

• Parsi DNA for the general Parsi community
• Sister H600 Project with DNA surname study foundation and terms explained