Genetic genealogy reveals true Y haplogroup of House of Bourbon contradicting recent identification of the presumed remains of two French Kings

Abstract

Genetic analysis strongly increases the opportunity to identify skeletal remains or other biological samples from historical figures. However, validation of this identification is essential and should be done by DNA typing of living relatives. Based on the similarity of a limited set of Y-STRs, a blood sample and a head were recently identified as those belonging respectively to King Louis XVI and his paternal ancestor King Henry IV. Here, we collected DNA samples from three living males of the House of Bourbon to validate the since then controversial identification of these remains. The three living relatives revealed the Bourbon's Y-chromosomal variant on a high phylogenetic resolution for several members of the lineage between Henry IV and Louis XVI. This 'true' Bourbon's variant is different from the published Y-STR profiles of the blood as well as of the head. The earlier identifications of these samples can therefore not be validated. Moreover, matrilineal genealogical data revealed that the published mtDNA sequence of the head was also different from the one of a series of relatives. This therefore leads to the conclusion that the analyzed samples were not from the French kings. Our study once again demonstrated that in order to realize an accurate genetic identification of historical remains DNA typing of living persons, who are paternally or maternally related with the presumed donor of the samples, is required.

Historical human remains identification through maternal and paternal genetic signatures in a founder population with extensive genealogical record

“…In a familial search context, forensic science and bioarchaeology regularly compare DNA samples isolated from human remains and living presumed relatives to verify their familial relationship. Analysis of ancient DNA (we use this expression for DNA recovered from archeological contexts, regardless of its age) has confirmed the identity of remains of eminent historical figures (Bogdanowicz et al, 2009, Charlier et al, 2013, but see Larmuseau et al, 2014). The bones of the Romanovs, the Russian royal family buried in 1918 in a mass grave after their execution by Bolshevik revolutionaries, have been identified through genetic analysis (Coble et al, 2009;Gill et al, 1994;Rogaev et al, 2009).…”

Low historical rates of cuckoldry in a Western European human population traced by Y-chromosome and genealogical data

“…The absence of recombination between Y-chromosome-specific markers is unique and allows the identification of EPP even after many generations have passed using a pedigree analysis [34]. The relation between two deep-rooted pedigrees, that is collections of families connected by a common ancestor who lived many generations ago, can be tested by high-resolution Y-STR and Y-SNP genotyping [35,36]. Until now, historical EPP rates have been estimated using this approach only within single families (e.g.…”

Human mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA isolation from food bite marks

“…Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups are valuable for investigations in forensic science, molecular anthropology and human genetics (Mitchell et al, 2014). mtDNA have been used for determination of biogeographic ancestry (Chaitanya et al, 2014) and in cases of old/damaged DNA samples (Pandey, Mehrotra, Kowtal, Mahdi, & Sarin, 2014) like archaeological studies (Larmuseau et al, 2014;Ottoni et al, 2011). In forensic settings, although it has lower discrimination power than STRs, it is useful in cases when this profiling fails to provide a match.…”