GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

From: "William Hurst" <>
Subject: [DNA] mtDNA Haplogroup K Project Reaches 300 Members
Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2006 22:43:27 -0500
In-Reply-To: <BAY111-F73A98838412F9432703E1F1080@phx.gbl>

Hi all,

The mtDNA Haplogroup K Project at FamilyTreeDNA reached a major milestone on
December 2, 2006, with 300 members only about 11 months after its founding.
295 of the members are shown on the mtDNA Results tab at
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/mtDNA_K/ ; five on the Results tab
tested their mtDNA with a company other than FTDNA. We are no longer the
largest mtDNA haplogroup project. Since my last report at 200 members, the H
Project has passed us and disappeared into the distance.

124, or 41.3%, of our members came originally from the National Geographic
Society's Genographic Project. 193 of the FTDNA members, or 65.4%, have
uploaded their data to MitoSearch. Eight members have received results and
subclade designations from full-sequence tests. We are waiting for the
results from 19 more of these Mega tests.

211, or 70.3%, have HVR1 plus HVR2, or high-resolution, results. (That
doesn't count one person who tested HVR1 and HVR2 at Relative Genetics,
since "HVR3" results are required from that company to be considered
high-resolution. The other Relative Genetics person does have HVR3 results.
This situation and the fact that one of those with an "N" kit number tested
mtDNA at another company may result in slight discrepancies in some counts
and percentages.) We now have 35 sets of high-res matches, including 117
members, or 55.5% of those with high-resolution results. That's up from
49.6% at 200 members.

The haplotype with the largest set of matches, with 12 members, is composed
of the six basic K mutations - 16224C, 16311C, 16519C, 73G, 263G and 315.1C
- plus 16234T, 114T and 497T, the modal or most common haplotype in the
Ashkenazi K1a1b1a subclade. The next largest, with 10 examples, has the
basic six plus 146C, 152C, 498- and 16320T - the modal K1c2. There are two
with eight examples: the modal K2a, which adds just 146C and 152c; and the
modal haplotype for the large cluster with 16048A. There are also two sets
with six examples: one has the Ashkenazi K1a9 modal, which adds 16093C,
195C, 497T and the key 16524G; the other set has a person determined by a
Mega test to be a K1a1a and five perfect matches, adding 497T and 309.1C.
(K1a has several lower subclades defined only by coding-region mutations, so
all these may not actually be in K1a1a.) One set with five examples has the
modal K1a1b1a as above plus the common additional mutation 16223T. One with
four is the modal for the Ashkenazi subclade K2a2a, which adds 512C to K2a.
Remember that the subclades are usually determined by coding-region
mutations outside the HVR regions. In addition, there are eight different
sets of HVR1 matches, not counting ones with just the three basic HVR1
mutations. 17 of those have 16234T.

With the 94 un-matched high-res "singletons" added to the 35 haplotypes in
matches, there are 129 different high-res haplotypes, for what I've been
calling a "diversity percentage" of 61.1%. That percentage continues to go
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
generally those in Dr. Doron Behar's "Ashkenazi" subclades, K1a1b1a, K1a9
and K2a2a. About 39 members, or 18.5%, are in one of the "Ashkenazi"
subclades. I have again used turquoise to mark the 524 series of HVR2
insertions. Of the 62, or 29,.4%, with the 524's, three have six of those
insertions each. Haplogroup K may be the leader in having that many of the
524's. More importantly, note that the 524 insertions do not, with one
exception, appear in the haplotypes marked in yellow or green. A new color
has been added; orange for the cluster with 16048A. I have written about
this cluster elsewhere. Behar only found one example; but since there are
more than 50 in the FTDNA database I expect it will be given a subclade
designation. Yet another new color, blue, is used for haplotypes with 16319A
and 16463G, which are probably in K1b1a. The new chart is at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wrhurst/mtdna-k/kp300chart.htm

Don't forget to look at the map below the chart on the mtDNA Results tab on
the Project website. So far, 87 members have added their distant maternal
ancestors' countries of origin coordinates: 64 in Europe and 23 in North
America. The News tab on the website should be consulted for recent
developments concerning K. Those tested as being in haplogroup K may join
the project by clicking the blue Join button on their FTDNA personal page,
then proceeding through four pages before clicking on yet another Join
button.

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/kprojecttable300.htm
For this special version I have not included a K-root line, so that the
percentages will be true for the 300 K project members. In you haven't
looked at these tables before, you might want to start with the explanation
below the summary table. The Summary Table clearly illustrates the six basic
K mutations. Only one other mutation appears more than 50%; 497T, the
defining mutation for K1a. 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. Some
recent recruiting of matches to the Project by members of the K1c2 subclade
and the 16048A cluster means that a set of tables from September might be
slightly more accurate for the relative percentages of haplotypes. See
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wrhurst/mtdna-k/kprojecttable.htm
However, those tables may have an overweight of the K1a1b1a subclade. Tom's
utility will also create Fluxus phylogenetic diagrams, but those work best
for smaller sets of data.

Bill Hurst
Administrator, mtDNA Haplogroup K Project

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• [DNA] mtDNA Haplogroup K Project Reaches 300 Members by "William Hurst" <>