Haplogroup M, AKA M-P256 and Haplogroup K2b1b (previously K2b1d) is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. M-P256 is a descendant haplogroup of Haplogroup K2b1, and is believed to have first appeared between 32,000 and 47,000 years ago. M-P256 is the most frequently occurring Y-chromosome haplogroup in West Papua and western

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. In addition, M-P256 is also found in neighboring parts of

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

Phylogenetic structure

This

phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA. In ...

of haplogroup subclades is based primarily on the trees published by YCC in 2008 and ISOGG in 2016. * M* (P256) ** M1 (M4, M5/P73, M106, M186, M189, M296, P35) *** M1a(P34_1, P34_2, P34_3, P34_4, P34_5) **** M1a1 (P51) **** M1a2 (P94) *** M1b (P87) **** M1b1 (M104_1/P22_1, M104_2/P22_2) ***** M1b1a (M16) ***** M1b1b (M83) ** M2 (M353, M387) *** M2a (M177/SRY9138) ** M3 (P117, P118)

Distribution

M* (M-P256*)

The paragroup M-P256* is found at a low frequency in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

(6.3%) and

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

(2.5%).Tatiana M. Karafet, Brian Hallmark, Murray P. Cox, , Sean Downey, J. Stephen Lansing and Michael F. Hammer, "Major East–West Division Underlies Y Chromosome Stratification across Indonesia", ''Molecular Biological Evolution'', (2010), vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 1833-1844.

M1 (M-M4)

This group is found frequently in

and

, with a moderate distribution in neighboring parts of

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

, and

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

. * Una 100% *

Ketengban Ketengban, also known as ''Kupel'', is a Papuan language spoken in Pegunungan Bintang Regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia, near the Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country ...

100% * Awyu 100% * Citak 86% *

Asmat Asmat may mean: *Asmat people, ethnic group in New Guinea *Asmat languages, of New Guinea *Asmat Regency, Indonesia *Asmat subregion Asmat subregion is a subregion in the northwestern Anseba region (Zoba Anseba) of Eritrea Eritrea, offi ...

75% * West Papua **Lowlands/coast 77.5% **Highlands 74.5% * Kombai/ Korowai 46% *

** Coast 29% ** Highlands 35.5% * Tolai (New Britain) 31% *

Trobriand Islands The Trobriand Islands are a archipelago of coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. They are part of the nation of Papua New Guinea and are in Milne Bay Province. Most of the population of 60,000 (2016) indigenous inhabitants live on the m ...

30% *

Maluku Maluku may refer to: Places * Maluku Islands, an archipelago that is part of Indonesia ** List of the Maluku Islands * Maluku (province), a province of Indonesia comprising the central and southern parts of the archipelago * North Maluku, a provin ...

(Moluccas) 21% *

Torres Strait Islanders Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...

(Australia): up to 2.0% – i.e. 0.9% of samples, when 45% of the total were deemed to be "non-indigenous" An extreme geographical outlier was apparently identified in a 2012 study, which reported a

Hazara Hazara may refer to: Places and ethnic groups Afghanistan * Hazaras, an ethnic group and a principal component of the population of Afghanistan ** Hazarajat, or Hazaristan, a historic region of Afghanistan ** List of Hazara tribes Pakistan * H ...

individual from

Mazar-e Sharif Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the List of cities in Afghanistan, fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh prov ...

, Afghanistan, with M1 (among a sample of 60 males from the mentioned area). The Hazara individual carried the SNP M186 (which is believed to be equivalent to M4).

M1a (M-P34)

M1a (M-P34) is the most frequently occurring Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup in

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region ...

. It is also found with moderate frequency in neighboring parts of

(

Nusa Tenggara The Lesser Sunda Islands (, , ), now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands (, or "Southeast Islands"), are an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali pr ...

) and throughout

, including offshore islands.

M1b (M-P87)

M1b M-P87(xM104/P22) has been found in approximately 18% (20/109) of a pool of samples from New Ireland, approximately 12% (5/43) of a sample of

Lavongai New Hanover Island, (), also called Lavongai, is a large volcanic island in the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. This region is part of the Bismarck Archipelago and lies at . Measuring some , it had a population of 5,000 in 1960, which ...

from New Hanover, approximately 5% (19/395) of a pool of samples from

New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...

(and, in particular, in about 24% (15/63) of

Baining Baining may refer to: * Baining people *Baining languages The Baining languages are a small language family spoken by the Baining people on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. They appear to be related to the neighboring ...

from

East New Britain East New Britain is a Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital ...

), in addition to one Saposa individual from northern Bougainville, and another individual from the north coast of

. The subclade M1b1 (M104_1/P22_1, M104_2/P22_2) is found frequently in populations of the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

and

Bougainville Island Bougainville Island (; Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil'') is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is part of Papua New Guinea. Its land area is . The highest point is Mount Balbi, on the main island, at . The much smaller Buk ...

, with a moderate distribution in

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

, East Futuna, and

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

M2 (M-M353)

M2 is found at a low frequency in

and East Futuna. The subclade M2a (M-M177, also referred to as M-SRY9138) has been found in one Nasioi individual from the eastern coast of Bougainville and in one individual from

Malaita Province Malaita Province is the most populous of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands. The population of the province is 122,620 (1999). The area of the province is . It is named after its largest island, Malaita (also known as "Big Malaita" or " ...

of the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. Alternative names previously used within peer-reviewed literature for the M2a subclade are listed below.

M3 (M-P117)

M3 (P117, P118) is found frequently in populations of

, and is also observed occasionally in northern Bougainville,

, and East Futuna.

Previous phylogenetic history

Prior to 2002, at least seven different naming systems for the Y chromosome phylogenetic tree were used within academic literature, leading to considerable confusion. To resolve this, in 2002, major research groups collaborated to form the Y-Chromosome Consortium (YCC). This resulted in a joint paper publication that contained a single new tree as a standard to use by the scientific community. Later, another group of scientists with an interest in population genetics and genetic genealogy worked to continually improve the naming system. The table below brings together the nomenclature used in Haplogroup M studies, prior to the landmark 2002 YCC Tree, enabling researchers reviewing older literature to quickly convert between the different nomenclatures that were in use. ;Sources The following research teams per their publications were represented in the creation of the YCC Tree. Karafet's 2008 paper introduced a number of changes, compared to the previou
2006 ISOGG tree
Before the discovery of the P256 marker, the current subgroup M-M4 (defined by the M4 marker) previously represented the whole of Haplogroup M-P256; and subgroups M2 and M3 were formerly classed as subgroups K1 and K7 of the parent Haplogroup K.

References

Sources for conversion tables

* * * * * * * *

External links

Spread of Haplogroup M
from ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...