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Origins, age, spread and ethnic association of European haplogroups and subcladesLast update May 2008
Introduction to genetic genealogyDNA studies have permitted to categorise all humans on Earth in genealogical groups sharing one common ancestor at one given point in prehistory. They are called haplogroups. There are two kinds of haplogroups: the paternally inherited Y-chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups, and the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups. They respectively indicate the agnatic (or patrilineal) and cognatic (or matrilineal) ancestry.Y-DNA haplogroups are useful to determine whether two apparently unrelated individuals sharing the same surname do indeed descend from a common ancestor in a not too distant past (3 to 20 generations). This is achieved by comparing the haplotypes through the STR markers. Deep SNP testing allows to go back much farther in time, and to identify the ancient ethnic group to which one's ancestors belonged (e.g. Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Greco-Roman, Basque, Iberian, Phoenician, Jewish, etc.). In Europe, mtDNA haplogroups are quite evenly spread over the continent, and therefore cannot be associated easily with ancient ethnicities. However, they can sometimes reveal some potential medical conditions (see diseases associated with mtDNA mutations). Some mtDNA subclades are associated with Jewish ancestry, notably K1a1b1a, K1a9,d K2a2a and N1b.
Y-DNA HaplogroupsThe dominant European Y-DNA haplogroups are R1b, R1a, I1a, I1b, I1c, J2, and N3. Minor haplogroups include C, E3b, G, J1, K, L, P and Q.Chronological development of Y-DNA haplogroups
Hypothetical map of Y-DNA haplogroup distribution in ancient Europe (before 300 BCE) Haplogroup R1bR1b (see map) is thought to be the direct descendant of Cro-Magnon, in other words of the oldest Homo Sapiens settlers in Europe. It is by far the most common in Western Europe, reaching over 90% of the population in some parts of western France, northern Spain or Ireland. It is subdivided in numerous subclades.
Haplogroup R1aR1a (see map) is associated with the Aryan-Kurgan culture and the expansion of Indo-European languages. It is the main haplogroup in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic. In Scandinavia, it is one of the most common haplogroups along with I1a and R1b, and is especially common in Norway. R1a is also found at a lower percentage in places settled by the Vikings. This haplogroup is widespread as far as Central Asia and India, where it represents over 20% of the male lineages.Haplogroup II represent 10 to 45% of the population in most of Europe. It is divided in four main subclades.Haplogroup I1a (see map) is the most common I subclade. It is found mostly in Scandinavia and Northern Germany, where it can represent over 35% of the population. Associated with the Norse ethnicity, it is found in all places invaded by the ancient Germanic tribes and the Vikings. I1c (also called I1b2) is also Germanic, peaking in central and northern Germany as well as in northern Sweden, and also found in 3 to 10% of the inhabitants of Denmark, East England, the Benelux, and Northern France. It is rare in Norway. On the other hand, I1b is typical of South Slavs (Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks), and is found almost exclusively in the ex-Yugoslavia, and to a lower extent also in Albania, Northern Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. I1b should not be confused with the completely separate I1b2 subclade, peaking among the Sardinians and the Basques, and rarely found outside Iberia, Western France, the West coast of Italy and the Mediterranean coast of the Maghreb. Haplogroup JJ is mostly found in South-East Europe, especially in central and southern Italy, Greece and Romania. It is also common in France, Turkey and in the Middle East. It is related to the Ancient Romans, Greeks and Phoenicians (J2), as well as the Arabs and Jews (J1). Subclades J2a and J2a1b1 are found mostly in Greece, Anatolia and southern Italy, and are associated with the Ancient Greeks.Haplogroup NN is almost only present in Finland (epicenter within Europe), the Baltic countries, Russia and Siberia, overflowing a bit onto Japan. It is of Uralic-Siberian origin.Haplogroup E3bE3b (see map) group has the highest concentration in Albania and Kosovo, then fading around the Balkans, Greece and Western Turkey. Outside Europe, it is also found in most of the Middle East, northern and eastern Africa, especially in Morocco, Lybia, Egypt Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Africa. It is believed to have first appeared in the Horn of Africa approximately 26,000 years ago and dispersed to the Middle East during the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods.The vast majority of the European members belong to the E3b1a subclade. It is further subdivided in E3b1a1, E3b1a2 (the most common) and E3b1a3. All are thought to descent from Near Eastern farmers who came to Europe in the Neolithic period. E3b1b is characteristic of the Berbers of North-West Africa. In some parts of Morocco E3b1b can peak at 80% of the population. This sub-hapolgroup is also found in Iberia, Italy and southern France, with the highest concentrations in southern Portugal (12%) and decreasing as we move north. Haplogroup GG is Central Asian in origins, and found mostly between the Near East and India. The only ethnic group that has a majority of G Y-DNA are the Ossetians in the Caucasus.G is very rare in Europe, and Europeans belonging to this group are thought to be descending of the Alans (themselves descending from the Scythians-Sarmatians), a central Asian tribe that traversed all continental Europe during the barbarian invasions in the 5th century. The Kingdom of Alania was located north of the Caucasus, in present-day Georgia (encroaching a bit on modern Russia). The Armenian diaspora is also responsible for the spread of G across Europe - notably in France, Ukraine and Greece. One of the most famous member of haplogroup G in history was Joseph Stalin, who was of Georgian origin. Haplogroup KK is also rare in Europe (less than 1% of the population), and like G is more common in South-East Europe. Being one of the oldest haplogroups in Eurasia, it had time to spread to very remote regions. It is found almost everywhere in between East Africa and the Pacific islands, including in the Middle-East, Caucasus, Iran, India and South-East Asia.Ethnically, its presence in Europe has been linked to the ancient Phoenicians and Jews. Some lineages may even be Persian. In any case, it appears to be Near Easterner. K2 was the haplogroup of Thomas Jefferson. Other haplogroups found in EuropeOn extremely rare occasions, Europeans can be found to belong to haplogroup A, C, P or Q, of Central Asian origins, or of haplogroup P, or South Asian origins.Q is thought to be the dominant haplogroup of the Huns, who invaded Europe in the 5th century, and is only found in 3% of the people in Hungary, where the one Hunnic tribe finally settled. Another group of Huns could have settled in Sweden and/or Norway, where Q is also found in among 0.5% of the population. C is of Mongol origin and is found everywhere at various concentrations in Genghis Khan's former empire. It is only found sporadically on the European continent. P is the parent group of Q and R (including R1a and R1b). It has almost disappeared nowadays, except around its place of origins in Central Asia. It is very rarely found in Europe. It may have been brought to Europe by Central Asian invaders, like the Huns or the Mongols. L is a haplogroup typical of the Dravidian people of South India. It is also found in Central Asia, Southwest Asia, and Southern Europe along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (notably in Italy). Europeans belonging to this haplogroup are likely to be descended from Indian merchants in ancient times (maybe at the time of the Roman Empire). A is the oldest haplogroup, originating in Africa over 60,000 years ago. Isolated cases have been found in Western Europe (notably Ireland, Britain and Germany). It is believed that these people descend from Black African slaves, either from Roman times or during the triangular trade with the Americas in the 18th century. Note that Gypsies belong predominantly (about 50%) to haplogroup H1a. This haplogroup is not otherwise found in Europe, but in the Indian subcontinent. MtDNA HaplogroupsAll mtDNA haplogroups found in Europe descend from the N group, which is thought to represent one of the two initial migrations by modern humans out of Africa, some 60,000 to 80,000 years ago. Nowadays, the mtDNA N haplogroup is only found in among Australian Aborigines. The gene has mutated everywhere else. N evolved into 4 subgroups : IWX, HV, JT and UK, which further evolved into separate entities, then subclades.Chronological development of mtDNA haplogroups
 Haplogroup H is by far the most common all over Europe, amounting to about half of the European population. It is also found (though in lower frequencies) in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. The Gypsies have two mtDNA haplogroups not found in the rest of the European population. About half of them belong to haplogroup M (found throughout East Asia and South Asia, especially in India), and 15% to haplogroup U3 (only found in high frequencies among the Gypsy community). I, W, X and NeanderthalI, W and X are all of very ancient European origin. Although present in all Europe and a big part of Asia, from the Middle East to Siberia, and even in North America in the case of X, these three haplogroups never exceed more than a few percents of the population in every region (most often under 1%).It i now believed that these mtDNA haplogroups might be the only surviving haplogroup descended from Neanderthal. Indeed most of the defining mutations of haplogroup X are shared by Neanderthal mtDNA, and many found in I and W are also in common. We currently have too few samples of Neanderthal DNA to have a clear idea of the range of genetic variation amongst this early human that lived in Europe for 150,000 prior to the Homo Sapiens. In any case, it is most likely that the number of Neanderthal haplogroups and subclades must have be considerable, in over 200,000 years of evolution. The Neanderthalian hypothesis is as consistent with the estimated age and place of origin of these haplogroups (in Europe or Russia, just before the presumed extinction of Neanderthals), as it is with the fact that they are a small minority in a flood of H, V, J, T, U and K, representing the better adapted Homo Sapiens, which would have outnumbered then progressively assimilated the last Neanderthals. The fact that only the mtDNA line (i.e. the maternal line) of Neanderthal has survived is also concordant, as in primitive societies women were very likely to be raped, abducted by another tribe, or spared and integrated to the winning tribe after a war. Natural selection also favoured the survival of these haplogroups in cold, mountainous or desertic climates, that is to say those for which Homo Neanderthalis was better adapted than Homo Sapiens. This would explain the higher densities of X and W in the Caucasus, in North-East Europe, Siberia and Central Asia. For more on the subject, please check Do modern Europeans partly descend from Neanderthal ?. European mtDNA haplogroups and their subclades
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