I would make your claim stronger, and say that persistent segments are in fact very common.It's just that you have no expectation of a persistent segment from any specific ancestor, but you certainly have some from some ancestors. I would say every person has some. -----Original Message----- From: Wesley Johnston via GENEALOGY-DNA <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> To: DNA Genealogy Mailing List <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> Cc: Wesley Johnston <wwjohnston01@yahoo.com> Sent: Wed, Nov 21, 2018 3:23 pm Subject: [DNA] Selfish genes and long-descending relatively intact atDNA regions I just listened to the Economist Babbage podcast in which they discussed ways of dealing with malaria through mosquito genetics. One idea is to take what has been already found in nature -- what is called a "selfish gene" -- and have it spread across the malaria-bearing mosquito population (which is actually 3 different species of mosquito). A selfish gene is one that somehow aids and abets its own propagation to the next generation. These have apparently been recognized as a reality in nature for some time. We have had discussions on this list about autosomal DNA that has persisted over multiple generations in excess of what the assumption of 50-50 average recombination would lead us to expect -- but which we have found in the reality of the descendants of some ancestor much further back than would be expected by so many descendants sharing the DNA. It is not at all common, but it is there in some cases. I do not know enough about genetics to say whether the "selfish gene" observed in nature is connected to what we are seeing in some cases in the atDNA of descendants of some ancestors. _______________________________________________ Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community