London (PTI): In research with implications for forensics and genealogy, scientists here have been developing techniques that may allow police to work out a person's surname from the DNA alone.

The techniques are being developed at the University of Leicester, where the revolutionary technique of genetic fingerprinting was invented by Sir Alec Jeffreys.

Doctoral research by Turi King has shown that men with the same British surname are highly likely to be genetically linked. The results of her research have implications in the fields of forensics, genealogy, epidemiology and the history of surnames.

King recruited over 2,500 men bearing over 500 different surnames to take part in the study carried out in Professor Mark Jobling's lab with the research exploring the potential link between surname and Y chromosome type.

"In Britain, surnames are passed down from father to son. A piece of our DNA, the Y chromosome, is the one part of our genetic material that confers maleness and is passed, like surnames, from father to son," King said.

"Therefore, a link could exist between a man's surname and the type of Y chromosome he carries. A simple link between name and Y chromosome could in principle connect all men sharing a surname into one large family tree.

"However, in reality the link may not be so clear cut. Hereditary surnames in Britain are many hundreds of years old and each name may have had several founders. Events such as adoptions, name-changes and non-paternities would confuse any simple genetic link.

"These days, using genetic techniques, it is possible to tell Y chromosomes apart from one another so we wondered if you might find that a particular surname was associated with a particular Y chromosome type."