mtDNA Haplogroup
K Project
At 500 Members
September 3, 2007
The mtDNA
Haplogroup K Project at FamilyTreeDNA reached another milestone on September 3,
2007, with 500 members 20 months after its founding. 491 of the members are
shown on the mtDNA Results tab on the Project website.
Nine members on the Results tab tested their mtDNA with companies other than
FTDNA. As far as I know, we continue to be the second largest mtDNA haplogroup
project after the H project.
205, or
41%, of our members came originally from the National Geographic Society's
Genographic Project. At least 332 of the FTDNA members, or 66%, have uploaded
their data to MitoSearch; others may have uploaded their results “by hand” and
wouldn’t be counted. 57 members have received coding-region results and
official subclade designations from full-sequence tests. We are waiting for the
results from 49 more of these FGS or Mega tests. So 106 or 21.6% of the FTDNA
members have ordered FGS tests. Eight of these have been uploaded to the
federal GenBank database so far, with other submissions in progress.
348
members, or 69.6%, have HVR1 plus HVR2, or high-resolution, results. (That
doesn’t count four of the non-FTDNA members who have incomplete HVR2 results.)
We have 56 sets of high-resolution matches, including 210 members, or 60.3% of
those with high-resolution results. That's up from 58.8% at 400 members. With
the 138 un-matched high-res "singletons"
added to the 56 haplotypes in matches, there are 194 different high-res haplotypes, for what I've been calling a
"diversity percentage" of 55.7%. That percentage continues to go down
as new members are more likely to find matches.
The haplotype
with the largest number of matches is now a branch of the Ashkenazi K1a1b1a
subclade, with 15 members. It has the six basic K mutations - 16224C, 16311C, 16519C, 73G, 263G and 315.1C - plus 497T, the defining
mutation for K1a, plus the defining HVR mutation for K1a1b1a, 16234T, plus
114T.
The next
largest haplotype, with 14 members, has the basic six mutations, plus 497T and
195C; the latter mutation defines a large group under K1a. Added to that are
16048A, 16291T and two pairs of position 524 insertions to form the modal
haplotype of a subclade I’ve provisionally called K1a10. In fact, I have
recently suggested this branch be called K1a10a, with a branch with the added
16051G mutation called K1a10a1, and a branch which substitutes 16047A for the 160291T
called K1a10b. We have only recently received single FGS orders for the latter
two branches, so it may be awhile until it is determined if there are perhaps
coding-region mutations involved in their definitions. Note that, following the
convention used in Dr. Doron Behar’s K tree, the number of 524 insertions is
not used in assigning the branch designations.
The third
largest haplotype, with 13 members, has the basic six mutations plus 146C,
152C, 498- and 16320T - the modal K1c2. The fourth largest, with 12 members,
has the basic six plus only 146C and 152C – the modal K2a.
The fifth
largest with 11 members is K1a9, another Ashkenazi subclade; this adds 195C,
497T, 16093C and the key mutation 16524G. Note that this one is similar to its
“sister” subclade K1a10 subclade found most commonly in those with Irish
ancestry.
Remember
that the subclades are usually officially determined by coding-region mutations
outside the HVR regions. I only make predictions based on HVR results.
Just
looking at the 57 members with full-sequence results, we now have 21 different
subclades represented, including three I’ve defined provisionally. The two
largest subclades are now K2a and K1a4a1 with eight members each. In the latter
one, which may only be determined by coding-region mutations, each person has a
different haplotype. In K2a three people exactly match the modal haplotype.
K1a1b1a has dropped to a close third with six members. Since my last report we
have picked up our first K1, K1a3a, K1a4 and K2b members. There are still no
examples of most of the lower K1a subclades: K1a2, K1a5, K1a6, K1a7 or K1a8.
Other than those, most of the K subclades are now represented by at least one
full-sequence test.
I have
posted a new chart
which contains the basic data for just the 348 high-resolution members from the
project website, again sorted first by predicted
subclade, then by HVR2 and HVR1 mutations. The Haplo
column contains either K or the subclades assigned by FTDNA from full-sequence
tests. My subclade predictions are in the Subclade column. Some uncertain
predictions are followed by a question mark. The subclades for the first three
entries are not predicted. Subclade predictions deeper than the official
subclade designations under the Haplo column may or
may not appear as such in a future edition of the “official” K tree.
The HVR1
and HVR2 mutation lists highlighted in yellow are those with the 498- and
16320T mutations, almost always suggesting K1c1 or K1c2 subclades. Those in
bright green are generally those in Dr. Doron Behar's Ashkenazi subclades,
K1a1b1a, K1a9 and K2a2a. About 56 members, or 16.1% of the 348 high-resolution
entries, are in one of the Ashkenazi subclades. That percentage is exactly the
same as in the 400-member report. I have again used turquoise to mark the 524
series of HVR2 insertions. Of the 106, or 30.1%, with the 524's, six members
have six of those insertions each, while one has eight.
The News
tab on the K Project 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.
© 2007
William R. Hurst
Administrator,
mtDNA Haplogroup K Project