Haplogroup W is a

human mitochondrial DNA Human mitochondrial genetics is the study of the genetics of human mitochondrial DNA (the DNA contained in human mitochondria). The human mitochondrial genome is the entirety of hereditary information contained in human mitochondria. Mitochondri ...

(mtDNA) haplogroup.

Origin

Haplogroup W is believed to have originated around 23,900 years ago in

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...

. It is descended from the haplogroup N2.

Distribution

Haplogroup W is found in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

. It is widely distributed at low frequencies, with a high concentration in Northern

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Haplogroup W is also found in the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

among

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

ns (1.08%-3.23%)
S5 Table
/ref> and in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

among

Yakuts The Yakuts, or the Sakha ( sah, саха, ; , ), are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taymyr and Evenk Districts ...

(6/423 = 1.42%Sardana A Fedorova, Maere Reidla, Ene Metspalu, ''et al.'', "Autosomal and uniparental portraits of the native populations of Sakha (Yakutia): implications for the peopling of Northeast Eurasia." ''BMC Evolutionary Biology'' 2013, 13:127. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/13/127). Additionally, the clade has been observed among ancient Egyptian mummies excavated at the Abusir el-Meleq archaeological site in Middle Egypt, which date from the Ptolemaic Kingdom. The W5 subclade has been found in a fossil associated with the

Starčevo culture The Starčevo culture is an archaeological culture of Southeastern Europe, dating to the Neolithic period between ''c.'' 6200 and 4500 BCE. It originates in the spread of the Neolithic package of peoples and technological innovations including far ...

(Lánycsók site; 1/1 or 100%). Ancient DNA analysis found that the medieval individual

Sungir Sungir (, sometimes spelled Sunghir) is an Upper Paleolithic archaeological site in Russia and one of the earliest records of modern ''Homo sapiens'' in Eurasia. It is situated about two hundred kilometres east of Moscow, on the outskirts of Vladi ...

6 (730-850 cal BP) belonged to the W3a1 subclade.

Subclades

Tree

This phylogenetic tree of haplogroup W subclades is based on the paper by Mannis van Oven and Manfred Kayser ''Updated comprehensive phylogenetic tree of global human mitochondrial DNA variation'' and subsequent published research. *W **W1 ***W1a ***W1b ***T119C ****W1c *****W1c1 ***W1d ***W1e ***W1f ***W1g ***C194T ****W3 *****W3a ******W3a1 *******W3a1a ********W3a1a1 *******W3a1b ********T199C *********W3a1c ******W3a2 *****W3b ******W3b1 ****W4 *****W4a ****W5 *****W5a ******W5a1 *******W5a1a ********W5a1a1 *********W5a1a1a ******W5a2 *****W5b ****W6 *****C16192T ******W6a ******W6b *****W6c ****W7

References

External links

*General **Mannis van Oven'
Phylotree

The India Genealogical DNA Project
*Haplogroup W

from ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...