GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2006-05 > 1148644847


From: "William Hurst" <>
Subject: mtDNA Haplogroup K Project Reaches 150 Members
Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 08:00:47 -0400


Hi all,

The mtDNA Haplogroup K Project at FamilyTreeDNA reached a new milestone on
May 25, with 150 members only four months and two weeks after its founding.
The last time I checked, we were still the largest mtDNA haplogroup project
at FTDNA, although K represents less than 10% of the population. Sixty-six
of the members came originally from the National Geographic Society's
Genographic Project, including 28 of the last 50. Only 38 of the first 100
members had come from the Genographic Project. I think that a very high
percentage of FTDNA's original customer base were men testing Y-DNA in
surname projects. Women mainly joined projects by sponsoring male relatives.
Probably many mtDNA tests were taken more or less as an afterthought. But
with the Genographic Project, women can only test their mtDNA, while men can
test both types, resulting in a much higher percentage of mtDNA tests than
in the past.

Ninety-seven, or almost 65%, have HVR1 plus HVR2, or high-resolution,
results. That's higher than I've seen before and much higher than in my
MitoSearch surveys. We now have 13 sets of high-res matches, including 36
members. With the 61 un-matched high-res "singletons," there are 74
different haplotypes, for what I've been calling a "diversity percentage" of
76%. Ann Turner has informed me that the correct scientific term for this
number is "discrimination capacity." OK. Two of the sets of matches have
five members each. There are also four sets of HVR1-only matches, not
counting those with just the three basic HVR1 mutations for K. 105 members
have uploaded their data to MitoSearch. Three members have received results
and subclade designations from full-sequence tests, with one more in
progress.

I have posted a new chart which contains the basic data from the project
website, but sorted by HVR2 then HVR1 mutations, with matches noted. The
HVR1 and HVR2 mutations highlighted in yellow are still those with the 498-
and 16320T mutations, suggesting K1c and K1c2 subclades. Those in green are
still those in Dr. Doron Behar's "Ashkenazi" subclades. A difference this
time is that I have used turquoise to mark the 524 series of HVR2
insertions. Note first that we now have two members who have six of those
insertions each. I've only seen one other such combination, on the
haplogroup I project website. More importantly, note that the 524 insertions
do not, with one exception, appear in the haplotypes marked in yellow or
green. The one exception is also missing two required mutations for subclade
K1c2, so his 16320T mutation is probably a random or personal mutation,
rather than a defining mutation. The new chart is at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wrhurst/mtdna-k/kp150chart.htm

The K Project website is at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/mtDNA_K/
Don't forget to look at the map below the chart on the mtDNA Results tab. So
far, 46 members have added their distant maternal ancestors' counties of
origin coordinates; 31 in Europe and 15 in North America. Those tested as
being in haplogroup K may join the project by clicking the blue Join button
on their FTDNA personal page.

Bill Hurst

This thread: