Haplogroup U (mtDNA)

Haplogroup U is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup (mtDNA). The clade arose from haplogroup R, likely during the early Upper Paleolithic. Its various subclades (labelled U1–U9, diverging over the course of the Upper Paleolithic) are found widely distributed across Northern and Eastern Europe, Central, Western and South Asia, as well as North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Canary Islands.

Origins

Haplogroup U descends from the haplogroup R mtDNA branch of the phylogenetic tree. The defining mutations (A11467G, A12308G, G12372A) are estimated to have arisen between 43,000 and 50,000 years ago, in the early Upper Paleolithic (around 46,530 ± 3,290 years before present, with a 95% confidence interval per Behar et al., 2012).

Ancient DNA classified as belonging to the U* mitochondrial haplogroup has been recovered from human skeletal remains found in Western Siberia, which have been dated to c. 45,000 years ago. The mitogenome (33-fold coverage) of the Peştera Muierii 1 individual (PM1) from Romania (35 ky cal BP) has been identified as the basal haplogroup U6* not previously found in any ancient or present-day humans..

Haplogroup U has been found among Iberomaurusian specimens dating from the Epipaleolithic at the Taforalt and Afalou prehistoric sites. Among the Taforalt individuals, around 13% of the observed haplotypes belonged to various U subclades, including U4a2b (1/24; 4%), U4c1 (1/24; 4%), and U6d3 (1/24; 4%). A further 41% of the analysed haplotypes could be assigned to either haplogroup U or haplogroup H. Among the Afalou individuals, 44% of the analysed haplotypes could be assigned to either haplogroup U or haplogroup H (3/9; 33%).

Haplogroup U has also been observed among ancient Egyptian mummies excavated at the Abusir el-Meleq archaeological site in Middle Egypt, dated to the 1st millennium BC.

Additionally, haplogroup U has been observed in ancient Guanche fossils excavated in Gran Canaria and Tenerife on the Canary Islands, which have been radiocarbon-dated to between the 7th and 11th centuries CE. All of the clade-bearing individuals were inhumed at the Tenerife site, with these specimens found to belong to the U6b1a (4/7; 57%) and U6b (1/7; 14%) subclades.

Distribution

Haplogroup U is found in 15% of Indian caste and 8% of Indian tribal populations.
Haplogroup U is found in approximately 11% of native Europeans and is held as the oldest maternal haplogroup found in that region. In a 2013 study, all but one of the ancient modern human sequences from Europe belonged to maternal haplogroup U, thus confirming previous findings that haplogroup U was the dominant type of Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in Europe before the spread of agriculture into Europe and the presence and the spread of the Indo-Europeans in Western Europe.

Haplogroup U has various subclades numbered U1 to U9. Haplogroup K is a subclade of U8. The old age has led to a wide distribution of the descendant subgroups across Western Eurasia, North Africa, and South Asia. Some subclades of haplogroup U have a more specific geographic range.

Subclades

Subclades are labelled U1–U9; Haplogroup K is a subclade of U8.

Van Oven and Kayser (2009) proposed subclades "U2'3'4'7'8" and "U4'9". Behar et al. (2012) amended this by grouping "U4'9" as subordinate to "U2'3'4'7'8" for a new intermediate subclade "U2'3'4'7'8'9".

Haplogroup U

Basal U was found in the 26,000 years old remains of Ancient North Eurasian, Mal'ta boy (MA1).

Haplogroup U1

The U1 subclades are: U1a (with deep-subclades U1a1, U1a1a, U1a1a1, U1a1b) and U1b.

Haplogroup U1 estimated to have arisen between 26,000 and 37,000 years ago. It is found at very low frequency throughout Europe. It is more often observed in eastern Europe, Anatolia and the Near East. It is also found at low frequencies in India. U1 is found in the Svanetia region of Georgia at 4.2%. Subclade U1a is found from India to Europe, but is extremely rare among the northern and Atlantic fringes of Europe including the British Isles and Scandinavia. In India, U1a has been found in the Kerala region. U1b has a similar spread but is rarer than U1a. A variety of subclade U1b1 with the mutations G14070A! and A3426G is found in Ashkenazi Jews. Subclades U1a and U1b appear in equal frequency in eastern Europe.

The rare U1 clade is also found among Algerians in Oran (0.83%-1.08%) and the Reguibat tribe of the Sahrawi (0.93%).

The U1a1a subclade has been observed in an ancient individual excavated at the Kellis 2 cemetery in the Dakleh Oasis, located in the southwestern desert of Egypt. 21 of the Kellis burials have been radiocarbon-dated to around 80-445 AD, a timeframe within the Romano-Christian period. Haplogroup U1 has also been found among specimens at the mainland cemetery in Kulubnarti, Sudan, which date from the Early Christian period (AD 550-800).

DNA analysis of excavated remains now located at ruins of the Church of St. Augustine in Goa, India have also revealed the unique mtDNA subclade U1b. This sublineage is absent in India, but present in Georgia and surrounding regions. Since the genetic analysis corroborates archaeological and literary evidence, it is believed that the excavated remains belong to Ketevan the Martyr, queen of Georgia.

Haplogroup U5

The age of U5 is estimated at between 25,000 and 35,000 years old, roughly corresponding to the Gravettian culture. Approximately 11% of Europeans (10% of European-Americans) have some variant of haplogroup U5.

U5 was the predominant mtDNA of mesolithic Western Hunter Gatherers (WHG).

U5 has been found in human remains dating from the Mesolithic in England, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, France and Spain. Neolithic skeletons (~7,000 years old) that were excavated from the Avellaner cave in Catalonia, northeastern Spain included a specimen carrying haplogroup U5.

Haplogroup U5 and its subclades U5a and U5b today form the highest population concentrations in the far north, among Sami, Finns, and Estonians. However, it is spread widely at lower levels throughout Europe. This distribution, and the age of the haplogroup, indicate individuals belonging to this clade were part of the initial expansion tracking the retreat of ice sheets from Europe around 10,000 years ago.

The modern Basques and Cantabrians possess almost exclusively U5b lineages (U5b1f, U5b1c1, U5b2).

Additionally, haplogroup U5 is found in small frequencies and at much lower diversity in the Near East and parts of northern Africa (areas with sizable U6 concentrations), suggesting back-migration of people from Europe toward the south.

Mitochondrial haplogroup U5a has also been associated with HIV infected individuals displaying accelerated progression to AIDS and death.

U5 was the main haplogroup of mesolithic European hunter gatherers. U haplogroups were present at 83% in European hunter gatherers before influx of Middle Eastern farmer and steppe Indo-European ancestry decreased its frequency to less than 21%.

* U5
**U5a arose around 17,000 and 27,000 years ago
***U5a1 arose between 14,000 and 20,000 years ago. Found in an Etruscan individual (700-600 B.C.) from southern Etruria, Italy.
**** U5a1a arose between 8,000 and 16,000 years ago
***** U5a1a1 arose between 3,000 and 11,000 years ago
****** U5a1a1a arose less than 6,000 years ago
****** U5a1a1b arose around between 600 and 6,000 years ago
****** U5a1a1c
****** U5a1a1d arose less than 4,300 years ago
***** U5a1a2 arose between 7,000 and 14,000 years ago
****** U5a1a2a arose less than 5,400 years ago
******* U5a1a2a1 arose less than 3,400 years ago
**** U5a1b arose between 6,000 and 11,000 years ago
***** U5a1b1 arose between 5,000 and 9,000 years ago
****** U5a1b1a arose between 2,500 and 7,500
******* U5a1b1a1 less than 4,000 years ago
****** U5a1b1b arose less than 8,000 years ago
****** U5a1b1c arose between 3,000 and 7,000 years ago
****** U5a1b1c1 arose less than 5,000 years ago
****** U5a1b1c2 arose less than 5,000 years ago
****** U5a1b1d
****** U5a1b1e
***** U5a1b2
***** U5a1b3
**** U5a1c
***** U5a1c1
***** U5a1c2
**** U5a1d arose around 19000 years ago
***** U5a1d1
***** U5a1d2
****** U5a1d2a
**** U5a1e
**** U5a1f
*** U5a2 arose around 14000 years ago
****U5a2a arose around 6000 years ago. It has been found in an ancient Mesolithic sample (6000-5000 cal BCE) from the Cave of Santimamiñe in the Basque Country, Spain.
**** U5a2b arose around 8000 years ago
**** U5a2c arose around 13000 years ago
**** U5a2d Found at the Mesolithic Huseby Klev site in western Sweden.
**** U5a2e
** U5b arose between 19,000 and 26,000 years ago and has polymorphisms in 150 7768 14182 ( + U5 polymorphisms). Found among Siwa Berbers of the Siwa Oasis.
*** U5b1 arose between 11,000 and 20,000 years ago.
**** U5b1a
**** U5b1b: has been found in Saami of Scandinavia, Finnish and the Berbers of North Africa, which were found to share an extremely young branch, aged merely ~9,000 years. U5b1b was also found in Fulbe and Papel people in Guinea-Bissau and Yakuts people of northeastern Siberia. It arose around 11000 years ago.
***** U5b1b1
****** U5b1b1b A principal element in the maternal western eurasian lineages in Puerto Rico, matching with samples from Senegambia and northern Cameroon indicating its presence as a product of early colonization and enslavement of Senegambians.
**** U5b1c arose about 13,000 years ago.
**** U5b1d
**** U5b1e arose about 6600 years ago. U5b1e is mainly seen in central Europe among Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians and southern Russians.
**** U5b1g
*** U5b2 arose between 17,000 and 23,000 years ago and has polymorphisms in 1721 13637( + U5b polymorphisms). The clade has been found in remains dating from prehistoric times in Europe, such as the subclade U5b2c1 of La Braña man (found at the La Braña site in Spain). U5b2 is rare among French Basques (2.5%) and more frequent in the Spanish Basques.
**** U5b2a between 12,000 and 19,000 years ago, prevalent in Central Europe.
***** U5b2a1 between 9,000 and 18,000 years ago
***** U5b2a2 between 7,000 and 14,000 years ago,
***** U5b2a3 between 3,000 and 14,000 years ago
***** U5b2a4 between 1,000 and 10,000 years ago
***** U5b2a5 less than 2,600 years ago
***** U5b2a6 less than 12,000 years ago.
**** U5b2b between 12,000 and 17,000 years ago. The clade was notably linked to Neve, who, at the time of her discovery, was the oldest identified female infant burial in Europe, carbon-dated to around 10,000 years ago.
**** U5b2c between 7,000 and 18,000 years ago.
***** U5b2c1 less than 8,000 years ago. Found in a Phoenician individual from a Carthage tomb in Byrsa Hill, Tunisia.
*** U5b3: The subclade likely originates in the Italian peninsula; it is at its highest distribution in southwestern Europe, peaking amongst Sardinians (3.84%), followed by Balearic people (1.56%) and northern mainland Portuguese (1.09%). According to another study, U5b3 occurs at a frequency of 2.53% amongst Majorcans and 0.96% amongst Sephardi Chuetas.
**** U5b3b: this subclade is likely similarly western Mediterranean/Ibero-Italic in origin but spread to parts of northwestern and middle Europe through Roman expansion, with samples found in Crete (Greece), Spain, Central Italy, England, the German Palatinate, and Bohemia.

Haplogroup U6

Haplogroup U6 was dated to between 31,000 and 43,000 years ago by Behar et al. (2012).
Basal U6* was found in a Romanian specimen of ancient DNA ( Peștera Muierilor) dated to 35,000 years ago. Hervella et al. (2016) take this find as evidence for Paleolithic back-migration of Homo sapiens from Eurasia into Africa. The discovery of basal U6* in ancient DNA contributed to setting back the estimated age of U6 to around 46,000 years ago.

Haplogroup U6 is common (with a prevalence of around 10%) in Northwest Africa (with a maximum of 29% in an Algerian Mozabites) and the Canary Islands (18% on average with a peak frequency of 50.1% in La Gomera). It is also found in the Iberian peninsula, where it has the highest diversity (10 out of 19 sublineages are only found in this region and not in Africa), Northeast Africa and occasionally in other locations. U6 is also found at low frequencies in the Chad Basin, including the rare Canarian branch. This suggests that the ancient U6 clade bearers may have inhabited or passed through the Chad Basin on their way westward toward the Canary Islands.

U6 is thought to have entered North Africa from the Near East around 30,000 years ago. It has been found among Iberomaurusian specimens dating from the Epipaleolithic at the Taforalt prehistoric site. In spite of the highest diversity of Iberian U6, Maca-Meyer argues for a Near East origin of this clade based on the highest diversity of subclade U6a in that region, where it would have arrived from West Asia, with the Iberian incidence primarily representing migration from the Maghreb and not persistence of a European root population.

According to Hernández et al. 2015 "the estimated entrance of the North African U6 lineages into Iberia at 10 ky correlates well with other L African clades, indicating that U6 and some L lineages moved together from Africa to Iberia in the Early Holocene."

U6 has four main subclades:

* U6a: subclade is the most widespread, stretching from the Canary Islands and Iberian Peninsula to the Horn of Africa and Near East. The subhaplogroup has its highest diversity in Northeast Africa. Ancient DNA analysis of Iberomaurusian skeletal remains at the Taforalt site in Morocco, which have been dated to the Later Stone Age between 15,100 and 13,900 ybp, observed the U6a subclade among most of the fossils (6/7; ~86%). Fossils at the Early Neolithic site of Ifri n'Amr or Moussa in Morocco, which have been dated to around 5,000 BCE, have also been found to carry the U6a subhaplogroup. These ancient individuals bore an autochthonous Northwest African genomic component that peaks among modern Berbers, indicating that they were ancestral to populations in the area. U6a's estimated age is 24-27,500 BP. It has one major subclade:
** U6a1: similar distribution to U6a parent clade; found particularly among Copts (27.6%) and Beja (10.4%). Estimated age: 15-20,000 BP.
* U6b: shows a more patched and western distribution. In the Iberian peninsula, U6b is more frequent in the north, whereas U6a is more common in the south. It has also been found at low frequencies in Morocco, Algeria, Senegal and Nigeria. Estimated age: 8,500-24,500 BP. It has one subclade:
** U6b1: found only in the Canary Islands and in the Iberian peninsula. Estimated age: c. 6000 BP.
* U6c: only found in Morocco and Canary Islands. Estimated age: 6,000-17,500 BP.
* U6d: most closely related to U6b. Localized in the Maghreb, with a presence in Europe. It arose between 10,000 and 13,000 BP.

U6a, U6b and U6d share a common basal mutation (16219) that is not present in U6c, whereas U6c has 11 unique mutations. U6b and U6d share a mutation (16311) not shared by U6a, which has three unique mutations.

U2'3'4'7'8'9

Subclades U2, U3, U4, U7, U8 and U9 are now thought to be monophyletic, its common ancestor
"U2'3'4'7'8'9" defined by mutation A1811G, arising between about 42,000 and 48,000 years ago (Behar et al., 2012).
Within U2'3'4'7'8'9, U4 and U9 may be monophyletic, as "U4'9" (mutations T195C!, G499A, T5999C) arising between 31,000 and 43,000 years ago (Behar et al., 2012).

U2'3'4'7'8'9 was found in the remains of two 32,000 years old Ancient North Siberians (ANS) from the Yana RHS Site on river Yana.

Haplogroup U2

Haplogroup U2 is most common in South Asia but is also found in low frequency in Central and West Asia, as well as in Europe as U2e (the European variety of U2 is named U2e). The overall frequency of U2 in South Asia is largely accounted for by the group U2i in India whereas haplogroup U2e, common in Europe, is rare; given that these lineages diverged approximately 50,000-years-ago, these data have been interpreted as indicating very low maternal-line gene-flow between South Asia and Europe throughout this period. Approximately one half of the U mtDNAs in India belong to the Indian-specific branches of haplogroup U2 (U2i: U2a, U2b and U2c). Haplogroup U2b2 has been found in the remains of a 4500 year old female excavated from the Rakhigarhi site of Indus Valley civilisation, in present day state of Haryana, India. While U2 is typically found in India, it is also present in the Nogais, descendants of various Mongolic and Turkic tribes, who formed the Nogai Horde. Both U2 and U4 are found in the Ket and Nganasan peoples, the indigenous inhabitants of the Yenisei River basin and the Taymyr Peninsula.

The U2 subclades are: U2a, U2b, U2c, U2d, and U2e. With the India-specific subclades U2a, U2b, and U2c collectively referred to as U2i, the Eurasian haplogroup U2d appears to be a sister clade with the Indian haplogroup U2c, while U2e is considered a European-specific subclade but also found in South India.

Haplogroup U2 has been found in the remains of a 37,000 and 30,000-year-old hunter-gatherer from the Kostyonki, Voronezh Oblast in Central-South European Russia., in 4800 to 4000-year-old human remains from a Beaker culture site of the Late Neolithic in Kromsdorf Germany, and in 2,000-year-old human remains from Bøgebjerggård in Southern Denmark. However, haplogroup U2 is rare in present-day Scandinavians. The remains of a 2,000-year-old West Eurasian male of haplogroup U2e1 was found in the Xiongnu Cemetery of Northeast Mongolia.

Haplogroup U3

Haplogroup U3 falls into two subclades:: U3a and U3b.

Coalescence age for U3a is estimated as 18,000 to 26,000-years-ago while the coalescence age for U3b is estimated as 18,000 to 24,000-years-ago. U3a is found in Europe, the Near East, the Caucasus and North Africa. The almost-entirely European distributed subclade, U3a1, dated at 4000 to 7000-years-ago, suggests a relatively recent (late Holocene or later) expansion of these lineages in Europe. There is a minor U3c subclade (derived from U3a), represented by a single Azeri mtDNA from the Caucasus. U3b is widespread across the Middle East and the Caucasus, and it is found especially in Iran, Iraq and Yemen, with a minor European subclade, U3b1b, dated at 2000 to 3000-years-ago. Haplogroup U3 is defined by the HVR1 transition A16343G. It is found at low levels throughout Europe (about 1% of the population), the Near East (about 2.5% of the population), and Central Asia (about 1% of the population). U3 is present in the Svan population from the Svaneti region (about 4.2% of the population) and among Lithuanian Romani, Polish Romani, and Spanish Romani populations (36-56%) consistent with a common migration route from India then out-of-the Balkans for the Lithuanian, Polish, and Spanish Roma.

The U3 clade is also found among Mozabite Berbers (10.59%), as well as Egyptians in the El-Hayez (2.9%) and Gurna oases (2.9%), and Algerians in Oran (1.08%-1.25%). The rare U3a subclade occurs among the Tuareg inhabiting Niger

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases