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DNA shows black genes in white Britons
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Updated: 2001-05-20 14:38

One in every 100 "white" Britons is directly descended from an African or Asian, a study into DNA has found.

The study's author, Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University, believes the DNA originates in Africans brought to Britain as soldiers and slaves by the Romans, the Sunday Times said.

The study, which looked at the DNA of more than 10,000 people, found that many who believed their ancestry to be completely British were actually far more diverse.

"This makes nonsense of any biological basis for racial classification," the newspaper quoted Sykes as saying. "We are all a complex mixture and, at the same time, we are all related."

Among those whom Sykes found with a strong selection of African genes were a dairy farmer from Somerset in southern England whose British ancestry could be traced back hundreds of years.



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