Ancient Gene Question

[Major_Griff]

I was wondering how it worked that some people had the ancient genes and others didn't. I thought works like this: Those who do not have the gene are part of the second evolution of the species, and those who do have the gene are direct decendents of the Ancients who returned to Earth from Atlantis. I am correct in my thinking, or does it work differntly?

[Skydiver]

my understanding is :

before i sleep spoilers

Spoiler:

when the ancients retreated from atlantis, they returned to earth andmingled in with the native populus. they survived, married, had children and through that activities, the ancient gene was passed down to generation after generation

so folks like jack,carson, shep, all had an ancestor who was an ancient

other folks don't

[Matthew D]

One of the things it it might be like a mitochondria DNA gene.. so that it would only come through on the mother's side of the family.. so it would only be present in some of the population and not others...

[LordAnubis]

my understanding is :

before i sleep spoilers

Spoiler:

when the ancients retreated from atlantis, they returned to earth andmingled in with the native populus. they survived, married, had children and through that activities, the ancient gene was passed down to generation after generation

so folks like jack,carson, shep, all had an ancestor who was an ancient

other folks don't

As a biology major, i'd say your explanation is the best I've heard so far. It makes sense. It's a recessive trait, if you will, and only a certain percentage of the population would inherit it.

[Metonic]

Actually It could just be explained as Mendel had explained why peaplants passed on certain traits.. ECT..

Ok First you have the Alleles, Which are the traits parents pass on and junk.
A= nonancient
a=Ancient

obvously Nonancient is dominate, or thered be more ancients.

The Male Parent is an Ancient
The Female Parent is Not.
Male = aa
Female = AA

They have kids..
Each one of those kids is gonna be Heterozygous. Meaning they will have Aa
The kids may not posses the Ancient gene(anything is possible though)

When these kids grow up they becoem the F1 group.
Say both male and Female are Heterozygous
then. 3 of 4 will not be ancients, but the 4th child will be an ancient.

heres a little graph..

The first graph is parent Generations. The bottom one is F1's



That is a basic understanding of how it was passed on Genetically. Im pretty sure I wrote it correctly.

Anyway Ever notice the people who have the ancient gene on the show look like decendents of Irish/Scotish people? I mean maybe its just me, but the ancients may have gone to Europe instead of staying in egypt, back then I believe the techtonic plates hadnt shifted as much as they have now, so theoritcall Europe was clsoer to Africa. Assuming the techtonciplates of Europe and Africa had pushed away.

Also another way to explain why its mostly the Irish/Scottish is because... Where were the Asgard? When they pretended to be gods it was in Europe(near bittish isles correct??) Perhaps the Ancients tried to get a hold of the Asgard, perhaps an outpost of some sort was there. The Ancients may have ventured there, and to explain to locals who the asgard were they told them they were from above with great power.. and thus Thor became a God.

[LordAnubis]

Actually It could just be explained as Mendel had explained why peaplants passed on certain traits.. ECT..

Ok First you have the Alleles, Which are the traits parents pass on and junk.
A= nonancient
a=Ancient

obvously Nonancient is dominate, or thered be more ancients.

The Male Parent is an Ancient
The Female Parent is Not.
Male = aa
Female = AA

They have kids..
Each one of those kids is gonna be Heterozygous. Meaning they will have Aa
The kids may not posses the Ancient gene(anything is possible though)

When these kids grow up they becoem the F1 group.
Say both male and Female are Heterozygous
then. 3 of 4 will not be ancients, but the 4th child will be an ancient.

heres a little graph..

The first graph is parent Generations. The bottom one is F1's



That is a basic understanding of how it was passed on Genetically. Im pretty sure I wrote it correctly.

Anyway Ever notice the people who have the ancient gene on the show look like decendents of Irish/Scotish people? I mean maybe its just me, but the ancients may have gone to Europe instead of staying in egypt, back then I believe the techtonic plates hadnt shifted as much as they have now, so theoritcall Europe was clsoer to Africa. Assuming the techtonciplates of Europe and Africa had pushed away.

Also another way to explain why its mostly the Irish/Scottish is because... Where were the Asgard? When they pretended to be gods it was in Europe(near bittish isles correct??) Perhaps the Ancients tried to get a hold of the Asgard, perhaps an outpost of some sort was there. The Ancients may have ventured there, and to explain to locals who the asgard were they told them they were from above with great power.. and thus Thor became a God.

Your Mendelian genetics is correct. Great post dude. However, I said the same thing, but kept it simple!

Now, about the Ancients looking Scottish/Irish. I agree, they probably filtered back to Europe somehow, rather than Egypt, but that begs the question: When they left Atlantis (refer to "Before I Sleep"), and went back to Earth via the gate, did they end up in Antarctica or Egypt? 10,000 years ago, Ra was on Earth and had brought a gate to Earth via ship, which of course, was in Giza, Egypt. The Ancients would not know of this gate and would assume they'd end up back in Antarctica.

However, we know that 10,000 years ago, Antarctica was frozen like it is today. Also, we know that Ayiana, who was frozen for 3 million years, was undisturbed. Therefore, the Ancients that came back to Earth most likely did not end up in Antractica, but rather Egypt. Wouldn't they have a problem being detected by the Goa'uld who controlled that gate?

Also, 10,000 years ago, the Earth was pretty much how it is today, tectonically at least.

I don't think everyone who has the Ancient gene is Celtic (Scotts/Irish), or even British. Although, Season 9 is going to have some connection with King Arthur and Merlin and the Ancients, so maybe there's something to your theory. I dunno.

The Asgard posed as Norse/Germanic gods (e.g., Thor, Loki, Heimdall, Freyr, etc.). The Norse Gods were worshipped by the Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Germans, and the Germanic tribes throughout Europe at that time. Early Germanic peoples (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians) settled in present day England (hence Angle-Saxon). English people are technically Germanic people and English is a Germanic language, but Irish/Scots/Welsh are Celtic and their original languages (Pict, Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, etc.) were Celtic languages.

[Metonic]

lol I didnt see your psot until I posted mine lol..

Yeah techtonic plates idea of mine was farfetched. lol

Yeah, I kind of confused most of the religions past Rome.

But I was close with the whoel english region.. however it is possible that the ancients dwelled with the Germanic Tribes, and some may have moved into scottland and ireland. or purhaps, to avoid their followers discovering them, the Ancients moved to Ireland and Scotland. This can be backedup by the Family Guy episode inwhich Peter takes Chris to an Irish muesum and they show what life was like before Whiskey, The Irish were jsut about to turn bodies into pure energy.. Walla, Ancients. Explains why they are so strict, they got in alot of bar fights and dont wanna lose any more

[LordAnubis]

lol I didnt see your psot until I posted mine lol..

Yeah techtonic plates idea of mine was farfetched. lol

Yeah, I kind of confused most of the religions past Rome.

But I was close with the whoel english region.. however it is possible that the ancients dwelled with the Germanic Tribes, and some may have moved into scottland and ireland. or purhaps, to avoid their followers discovering them, the Ancients moved to Ireland and Scotland. This can be backedup by the Family Guy episode inwhich Peter takes Chris to an Irish muesum and they show what life was like before Whiskey, The Irish were jsut about to turn bodies into pure energy.. Walla, Ancients. Explains why they are so strict, they got in alot of bar fights and dont wanna lose any more

Heh, green square for ya for makin me laugh.

[Steam]

A wizard Did it

[Hatcheter]

Actually It could just be explained as Mendel had explained why peaplants passed on certain traits.. ECT..

Ok First you have the Alleles, Which are the traits parents pass on and junk.
A= nonancient
a=Ancient

obvously Nonancient is dominate, or thered be more ancients.

The Male Parent is an Ancient
The Female Parent is Not.
Male = aa
Female = AA

They have kids..
Each one of those kids is gonna be Heterozygous. Meaning they will have Aa
The kids may not posses the Ancient gene(anything is possible though)

When these kids grow up they becoem the F1 group.
Say both male and Female are Heterozygous
then. 3 of 4 will not be ancients, but the 4th child will be an ancient.

heres a little graph..

The first graph is parent Generations. The bottom one is F1's



That is a basic understanding of how it was passed on Genetically. Im pretty sure I wrote it correctly.

Anyway Ever notice the people who have the ancient gene on the show look like decendents of Irish/Scotish people? I mean maybe its just me, but the ancients may have gone to Europe instead of staying in egypt, back then I believe the techtonic plates hadnt shifted as much as they have now, so theoritcall Europe was clsoer to Africa. Assuming the techtonciplates of Europe and Africa had pushed away.

Also another way to explain why its mostly the Irish/Scottish is because... Where were the Asgard? When they pretended to be gods it was in Europe(near bittish isles correct??) Perhaps the Ancients tried to get a hold of the Asgard, perhaps an outpost of some sort was there. The Ancients may have ventured there, and to explain to locals who the asgard were they told them they were from above with great power.. and thus Thor became a God.

I've been aboard the Mendelian wagon for months. Good synopsis.

I'd like to add my own pet theory to this, about Sheppard's uniquely powerful ATA abilities. By my thinking, the A in your graph should represent the ATA gene, while the a represents a "blank" gene, a section of DNA that doesn't actually do anything. ATA is therefore dominant, but it hasn't been doing anything to give its carriers an advantage over non-carriers in reproduction, so it has remained an extreemly rare trait.

From info I've read, about 1 in 16,000 people are supposed to have the ATA gene; every one else simply has blanks. Those few people who do possess the gene are Aa; they carry one copy of the gene, which does its ATA thing. Their children have a 50-50 chance of inheriting the gene (asuming the other parent is ATA negative).

But I think that both of Sheppard's parents were Aa, and both of them passed the ATA gene on to him. Sheppard is therefore AA, and the two copies of the gene work together to double whatever it is they do for everyone else.

Now, with that 1 in 16,000 number, the chance of his parents meeting and reproducing is one in a quarter-billion. Add in the one in four chance that both A genes would be passed on, and Sheppard is literally one in a billion. So, there's maybe five other poeple on Earth who have his abilities.

(Cue script for the sudden arrival of his troubled, estranged sibling, who was unexpectedly "drafted" by the Air Force and flung across the universe. )


With regards to where the Ancients went when they got to Earth, I think it was Italy. The Roman language is supposed to be a derivative of Ancient. It's likely they spread around Europe, if not the whole world, but I believe they were concentrated there.


And on the topic of the ancestry of ATA carriers, Sheppard, O'Neill, Sgt. Markham, and Joe (from 'Citizen Joe'), four of the confirmed ATA carriers between the two shows, are Americans. They could have any number of nationalities in the heritage.

[Anya_Ginny]

A random thought about genetics...this is all being pulled up from memory so forgive me if I’m wrong…someone mentioned that the Ancient gene might be dominant. But you would think that then most people would have it. Right?
However just because a gene is dominant doesn’t mean it’s the most common. I'll use my cats as an example. Amy had that sixth toe, you know the kitty thumb. Houdini has normal paws. The six toe gene is actually the dominant gene, but since most cats have the recessive gene that's the one that gets passed along. If both parents are like Dini there is no way to get the kitty thumb passed on.
So if the Ancient gene is dominant most of the family should have the gene. Others marrying into the family may have the aa gene and that makes the chances of getting AA genes rare, but the dominant gene should stay in the family for awhile. Perhaps the SGC should check out the families of the gene carriers…

[Skydiver]

A random thought about genetics...this is all being pulled up from memory so forgive me if I’m wrong…someone mentioned that the Ancient gene might be dominant. But you would think that then most people would have it. Right?

not necessarily.

maybe there were only a few hundred/thousand ancients who fled to earth. We can presume that some of them never bred. Just looking at the one man on the council, he was pretty old and may not have been able to attract and find a mate to procreate with. so let's say there were 1000 refugees (i don't think we've ever been given a definitive number), and 70% of them married. so that's 700 folks or 350 couples...now some of those couples will have married within thier race, some intermingled with the locals. those that stayed within thier race, their genes will be stronger, those that married out will have the gene watered down

there are advantages and disadvantages to each. obviously, it's good if the genes stay pure (from the technology standpoint) however those that intermingle bring in a more varied assortment of genes into thier lineage, and possibly traits that give them better protection against disease and the such. (especially since the ancients no longer have access to their toys and tech)

those who steadfastly remained within thier race, well they're going to be facing rather significant interbreeding issues within a few generations. thier genetic pool would be getting more and more shallow and eventually unsustainable

this could be similar to a situation in Europe where some people have genetic remnants of the neanderthal man despite the fact that neanderthal's have been gone for thousands of years. the species may be gone, but thier genes are still around

[Hatcheter]

However just because a gene is dominant doesn’t mean it’s the most common.

That's it exactly. Dominance is how a gene can supercede its counterpart on the other allele. A recessive gene has weaker activity, and is usually overwhelmed or disabled by the dominant gene.

Frequency tells how common it is in the population. Skydiver covered all that perfectly.

Recessive genes, even if they never do anything for anyone (or are even detrimental), are still going to get passed on, and remain within the population. Likewise, a dominant gene like ATA, which hasn't done anything to enhance the survivability or reproductive capability of its carriers, has remained rare within the gene pool.

Short of some major event, like the virus from Hot Zone being released on Earth, the ATA gene will remain naturally rare. Until Beckett's gene therapy gets that FDA approval, at least.

[Skydiver]

sometimes recessive genes pop up in the oddest places. i used to have neighbors who were african-american with the expected dark hair and dark eyes...but thier daughter had blue eyes. so, somewhere in the ancestry of both the father and mother, was causasian genes

there are people in mongolia who, instead of having the dark hair and eyes of your typical mongolian, they have blond hair and light eyes....because europeans visited the area hundreds of years ago and interbred and occasionally, the recessive caucasian genes are on both sides of the family and pop up in a child who may be mongolian by birth and ancestry, but caucasian in appearance

i believe there are genetic diseases that are recessive and only manifest themselves if both parents carry the gene and even then, statistically, 1 in 4 of their children will actually get the disease

[greytop]

my understanding is :

before i sleep spoilers

Spoiler:

when the ancients retreated from atlantis, they returned to earth andmingled in with the native populus. they survived, married, had children and through that activities, the ancient gene was passed down to generation after generation

so folks like jack,carson, shep, all had an ancestor who was an ancient

other folks don't

This is the way I understand it also.