| Haplogroup K | |
| Possible time of origin | 22,700 to 40,400 YBP[1] |
| Possible place of origin | Western Asia |
| Ancestor | U8b'K |
| Descendants | K1, K2 |
|---|---|
| Defining mutations | 3480 10550 11299 14798 16224 16311[2] |
In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup K is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup, defined by HVR1 mutations 16224C and 16311C.
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It is the most common subclade of haplogroup U8,[3] and it has an estimated age of c. 12,000 years BP.[4]
Haplogroup K appears in West Eurasia, North Africa, and South Asia and in populations with such an ancestry. Overall mtDNA Haplogroup K is found in about 6% of the population of Europe and the Near East, but it is more common in certain of these populations. Approximately 16% of the Druze of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, belong to haplogroup K. It was also found in a significant group of Palestinian Arabs.[5] K reaches a level of 17% in Kurdistan.[6]
Approximately 32% of people with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry are in haplogroup K. This high percentage points to a genetic bottleneck occurring some 100 generations ago.[5] Ashkenazi mtDNA K clusters into three subclades seldom found in non-Jews: K1a1b1a, K1a9, and K2a2a. Thus it is possible to detect three individual female ancestors, likely from a Hebrew/Levantine mtDNA pool, whose descendants lived in Europe.[7]
The average of European K frequency is 5.6%. K appears to be highest in the Morbihan (17.5%) and Périgord-Limousin (15.3%) regions of France, and in Norway and Bulgaria (13.3%).[8] The level is 12.5% in Belgium, 11% in Georgia and 10% in Austria and Great Britain.[6]
Haplogroup K was found in the remains of three individuals from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of Tell Ramad, Syria, dating from c. 6000 BC.[9] Haplogroup K has also been found in skeletons of early farmers in Central Europe of around 5500-5300 BC. It has long been known that the techniques of farming, together with associated plant and animal breeds, spread into Europe from the Near East. The evidence from ancient DNA suggests that the Neolithic culture spread by human migration.[10]
Analysis of the mtDNA of Ötzi the Iceman, the frozen mummy from 3300 BC found on the Austrian-Italian border, has shown that Ötzi belongs to the K1 subclade. It cannot be categorized into any of the three modern branches of that subclade (K1a, K1b or K1c). The new subclade has provisionally been named K1ö for Ötzi.[11] Multiplex assay study was able to confirm that the Iceman's mtDNA belongs to a new European mtDNA clade with a very limited distribution amongst modern data sets.[12]
A woman buried some time between 2650 and 2450 BC in a presumed Amorite tomb at Terqa (Tell Ashara), Middle Euphrates Valley, in Syria carried Haplogroup K.[13]
This phylogenetic tree of haplogroup K subclades is based on the paper by Mannis van Oven and Manfred Kayser Updated comprehensive phylogenetic tree of global human mitochondrial DNA variation[2] and subsequent published research.
| mtDNA HG "K" p-tree |
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In his popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes named the originator of this mtDNA haplogroup Katrine.
On an 18 November 2005 broadcast of the Today Show, during an interview with Dr. Spencer Wells of The National Geographic Genographic Project, host Katie Couric was revealed to belong to haplogroup K. [1]
On 14 August 2007, Stephen Colbert was told by Dr Spencer Wells that he is a member of this haplogroup during a segment on The Colbert Report.
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Evolutionary tree of Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups |
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| Mitochondrial Eve (L) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L0 | L1-6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L1 | L2 | L3 | L4 | L5 | L6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| M | N | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CZ | D | E | G | Q | A | S | R | I | W | X | Y | |||||||||||||||||||||
| C | Z | B | F | R0 | pre-JT | P | U | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HV | JT | K | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| H | V | J | T | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||