Florida man not really Genghis descendent

A Florida man was elated when he was told a DNA test showed he was descended from Genghis Khan, only to learn a subsequent DNA test found otherwise.

University of Miami Associate Professor of Accounting Thomas Robinson's brief inclusion in the Mongol royal house began in April when Oxford Ancestors, a British DNA testing company, told him he had a genetic signature close to that of Genghis Khan, The New York Times reported. Robinson had asked the company to test his Y chromosome.

That finding produced several newspaper stories and even an offer by a movie company to fly him to Mongolia.

But, when Robinson asked for a second opinion, he found he was, in fact, not descended from the Mongol emperor, the Times said.

The professor later learned the error stemmed from the first company's testing of only nine of Robinson's Y chromosome sites -- ones that often mutate between generations, the newspaper said. The second DNA company said the major branches of the Y chromosome family tree are defined by mutations at sites that change very seldom.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International