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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2006-07 > 1154119421


From: "William Hurst" <>
Subject: mtDNA Haplogroup K Project Reaches 200 Members
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 16:43:41 -0400
In-Reply-To: <BAY111-DAV12FB8A18B107330192F8C5F19E0@phx.gbl>


Hi all,

The mtDNA Haplogroup K Project at FamilyTreeDNA reached a new milestone on
July 28, 2006, with 200 members only six months and two weeks after its
founding. 198 of the members are shown on the mtDNA Results tab at
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/mtDNA_K/ ; two on the Results tab tested
their mtDNA with a company
other than FTDNA. At this writing we were still the largest mtDNA haplogroup
project at FTDNA, but just barely. The Haplogroup H project shows 201
members on their mtDNA Results tab, but three of those are not in haplogroup
H. There are an additional 26 members of the H1* Project. The H haplogroup
is several times larger than K
within the world's population, so inevitably we will be passed and left
behind. It was fun while it lasted.

Eighty-five, or 42.5%, of the members came originally from the National
Geographic Society's Genographic Project. 133 members have uploaded their
data to MitoSearch. Seven members have received results and subclade
designations from full-sequence tests; only two of those are in the same
subclade.

135, or 67.5%, have HVR1 plus HVR2, or high-resolution, results. That's
slightly higher than I've seen before and much higher than in my MitoSearch
surveys. We now have 22 sets of high-res matches, including 67 members, or
49.6% of those with high-resolution results. The largest set of matches,
with nine members, is composed of the six basic K mutations - 16224C,
16311C, 16519C, 73G, 263G and 315.1C - plus 16234T, 114T and 497T, the most
common type of Ashkenazi K1a1b1a subclade. The set with six examples has the
basic six plus 146C and 152C. One of those members has been assigned to the
K2a subclade by a full-sequence test, but for this particular haplotype this
does not mean the other five are also in K2a. Adding 512C to this haplotype
results in a K2a2a haplotype (there are three of those), but adding 498-
results in subclade K1c - completely different. So some of the five might be
classified as K1* if they took the full-sequence test. Remember that the
subclades are usually determined by coding-region mutations outside the HVR
regions. In addition, there are five different sets of HVR1 matches, not
counting ones with just the three basic HVR1 mutations. With the 68
un-matched high-res "singletons," there are 90 different haplotypes, for
what I've been calling a "diversity percentage" of 66.7%. That percentage
keeps going down as new members are more likely to find matches.

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 those with the 498- and
16320T mutations, suggesting K1c and K1c2 subclades. Those in green are
still generally those in Dr. Doron
Behar's "Ashkenazi" subclades. About 50 members, or 25%, are in one of the
"Ashkenazi" subclades. I have again used turquoise to mark the 524 series of
HVR2 insertions. Of the 30 with the 524's, two 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 new chart
is at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wrhurst/mtdna-k/kp200chart.htm

There are at least three haplotypes in the chart which contain
subclade-defining mutations, but which are probably not in the suggested
subclades. I've previously mentioned the one with 16320T which is probably
not a K1c2, since it does not include 152C and 498-, but does include a set
of 524 insertions not found in K1c2. Another haplotype has 16234T, which
usually means K1a1b1a; but this one does not included the required
K1a-defining 497T. The third one has the 16524G mutation usually found in
K1a9, but it has two sets of 524 insertions not found in that subclade. In
this case, there is other evidence; the person has taken the full-sequence
test and is a K1b2. Defining mutations are important, but must not be looked
at in isolation.

Don't forget to look at the map below the chart on the mtDNA Results tab on
the Project website. So far, 64 members have added their distant maternal
ancestors' counties of origin coordinates; 48 in Europe and 16 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.

Thanks to Tom Glad, we have a new utility for creating summary and genetic
distance tables for mtDNA. See the latest set of tables at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wrhurst/mtdna-k/kprojecttable200.htm
For this special version I have not included a K-root line, so that the
percentages will be true for the 200 K project members. In you haven't
looked at these tables before, you might want to start with the explanation
below the summary table. I have been recreating this table as new members
are added, but I'll leave the "200" version as is. The Summary Table clearly
illustrates the six basic K mutations. Only one other mutation appears more
than 50%; 497T, the defining mutation for K1a. 25 members have one or more
unique HVR1 mutations and 15 have one or more unique HVR2 mutations. This
table makes it easy to find how common or rare your mutations are and who
else has them. The Genetic Distance table will show who is close to you. The
mutations are treated equally, but the 524 insertion pairs and the 522, 523
deletion pairs are counted as one. Tom's utiltiy will also create Fluxus
charts, but those work best for smaller sets of data.

Bill Hurst
Administrator, mtDNA Haplogroup K Project


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