Abstract: With recent advances in next generation sequencing technologies and significant genetic investigations carried out by our team in East Asia for years, we have identified thousands of new informative markers and constructed a genetic database of about 200,000 individuals containing Y-STR and Y-SNP information. From this detail we can predict the haplogroups samples belong to by using Y-STR haplotypes. So, we can select fewer SNPs to form a minipanel so as to determine the actual genetic lineage of the subject. Here, we tested the ancient DNA of Emperor CAO Cao’s grand uncle (CAO Ding) buried in Yuanbaokeng I, compensating the shortcoming of the genetic lineage of CAO Cao inferred by those of his present descendants and the Y chromosomal haplogroups inferred by Y-STR haplotypes in previous research. The results showed that the paternal genetic lineage of CAO Cao and their descendants is O2-M268+, F1462+, PK4-.

Key words: Cao Cao; Ancient DNA; Y chromosome; SNaPshot; Paternal genetic lineage