Haplogroup NO (Y-DNA)

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Haplogroup NO
Time of origin 35-40,000 years BP
Place of origin
Ancestor K
Descendants N and O
Defining mutations M214, P188, P192, P193, P194, P195

In human genetics, Haplogroup NO (M214, P188, P192, P193, P194, P195) is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. Haplogroup NO is a descendant branch of the greater Haplogroup K (M9) and a phylogenetic sibling of haplogroup L, Haplogroup M, Haplogroup P, Haplogroup S, and Haplogroup T.

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[edit] Origins

The M214 mutation that defines Haplogroup NO occurred in a gamete of a man who belonged to Haplogroup K and who probably lived somewhere in Eurasia east of the Aral Sea about 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. This man has become the direct patrilineal ancestor of a very large percentage of present-day humans, as he is the forefather of both Haplogroup N and Haplogroup O, which together are overwhelmingly dominant throughout North and East Eurasia.

[edit] Distribution

Haplogroup NO*, which comprises all Y-chromosomes in the Haplogroup NO-M214 line that do not belong to either of the common descendant haplogroups N or O, is found extremely rarely among the males of modern human populations, with its highest reported sampled frequency being about 2.3%, or 6 of 259 individuals, in a sample of men from Japan.[1] The same study also reported finding Haplogroup NO* Y-chromosomes at even lower frequencies among males from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. However, a comparison with other studies of Y-chromosome variation in the East Eurasian region shows that Haplogroup NO* Y-chromosomes have actually been found only among populations of Xinjiang in western China near the border with Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan; among populations of Inner Mongolia that speak an Altaic language; among populations that reside in close proximity to the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and speak a Tibeto-Burman language; and, of course, among populations of Japan. The general impression is that Haplogroup NO* patrilines persist at low but detectable frequencies on the (particularly western and northeastern) fringes of China or the greater Sinosphere. Nowhere do Haplogroup NO* Y-chromosomes comprise more than a tiny fraction of the total Y-chromosome diversity of any population.

The reason for the nearly complete extinction of Haplogroup NO* patrilines, in stark contrast with the preeminent success of Haplogroup NO-M214's other descendants, Haplogroup N in North Eurasia and Haplogroup O in East Eurasia, is unclear; however, this situation seems to be a good parallel to the near-extinction of Haplogroup P* patrilines in all regions except northern Central Asia despite the dominance of Haplogroup P's other descendants, Haplogroup R and Haplogroup Q, in West Eurasia and the Americas, respectively. It is likely that both repeated founder effects and strong genetic drift in small ancestral populations of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers are responsible for shaping the Y-chromosome distribution that is found in modern human populations.

[edit] Subgroups

The subclades of Haplogroup NO with their defining mutation, according to the 2008 ISOGG tree:

[edit] References

  1. ^

[edit] See also

Human Y-chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups (by ethnic groups, famous haplotypes)
most recent common Y-ancestor
|
A BT
B CT
DE CF
D E C F
G H IJ K
I J L M NO P S T
N O Q R