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Monday, June 23, 2008

The mtDNA spread maps 3: macro-haplogroup M


The last map of the series (it was hard to draw and I am still slightly confused about some minor M clades possibly):




Important notes:
· AI stands for Andaman Islands
· Sahul refers to Australia and New Guinea, but most clades are exclusively Melanesian. Only Q (marked in pink) is present in Australia too.
· Clades marked in blue are present in several regions:
  • M33 is shared by South and SE Asia
  • M9 (including subclade E) is shared by SE and East Asia
  • CZ (or just C, Z being a subclade) has a wide distribution across northern Eurasia, from Northern Europe to America, it's generally considered to be East Asian in origin
  • D has also a wide distribution from West Eurasia (Northern Europe and West Asia) to America, it's generally considered to be East Asian in origin too
· Clades marked in green are shared by East and Central Asia


See also:
· The mtDNA spread maps 1: macro-haplogroup N
· The mtDNA spread maps 2: macro-haplogroup R

Another note: the South Asian origin is putative, not definitive. One could well argue for SE Asian origin for this macro-haplogroup (not for the others though) but in my opinion it's a quite reasonable hypothesis. Of course, the ultimate origin is in Africa, where there is a lot more diversity within L3, from which both M and N are derived.

If you find any error, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

11 comments:

terryt said...

Maju. I hope it doesn't shock you too much but I think I agree 100%. It fits pretty much exactly my less detailed map at the end of the first version of my essay "MtEve" at remotecentral. I totally accept that M developed in India somewhere rather than in SE Asia.

Maju said...

It doesn't "shock" me. :)

I would think that M developed prior to the arrival to South Asia (no precursors: no L3*) and that it diverged in the subcontinent, probably in rather eastern locations (because of its global distribution).

Manju Edangam said...

I would think that M developed prior to the arrival to South Asia (no precursors: no L3*)

I agree. That is the most plausible scenario.

Manju Edangam said...

Are there any L3* outside Africa?

Maju said...

Are there any L3* outside Africa?

I don't really know even if there is any L3* (i.e. not clasified within any other subclade) in Africa - guess it does but I have not dedicated my attention to "the Ls" in depth yet, so I can't know for sure.

As for L3 in general, it's found in peninsular Arabia particularly, along with other L lineages (particularly L2 and L0), as per Abu Amero 2008. In the suplemental materials he mentions 0.3% of L3* in Central Saudi Arabia (none in the rest).

He also mentions 0.9% in South+East Saudi Arabia of something called "L/M/N". What the heck does that mean?! And why did he put together Asir with the eastern coast?

Also notice the curious "M(PNG)=Q1" that reaches as much as 2.8% in Western Saudi Arabia (0.7% in total). I undertsand that the likehood of this clade, if confirmed as Q1, having migrated in such large numbers from Melanesia to Hedjaz/Asir in historical times is really small.

Further detailed study of Arabian mtDNA can still give some nice clues, I guess, even if obviously the vast majority of Arabian mtDNA is northern West Asian in origin.

Maju said...

Erratum: "Hedjaz/Asir" in the penultimate paragraph should read "Hedjaz" only.

Maju said...

Btw, Abu Amero also toys with the idea of an earlier OOA event:

A more recent analysis, based on a greater number of sequences, pushed back the lower bound of the out-of-Africa migration, signed by the L3 radiation, to around 85 kya [13]. This date is no so far from the above commented presence of modern humans in the Levant about 100–125 kya. Interestingly, this migration is also in frame with the putative presence of modern humans in Eritrean coasts [14], and corresponds with an interglacial period (OIS 5), when African faunas expanded to the Levant [15]. After that, it seems that, at least in the Levant, there was a long period of population bottleneck, as there is no modern human evidence in the area until 50 kyr later, again in a relatively warm period (OIS 3). This contraction phase might be reflected in the basal roots of M and N lineages by the accumulation of 4 and 5 mutations before their next radiation around 60 kya [13].

Maju said...

This OIS 5 (or MIS 5) interstadial epysode seems to be, at least partly, the same as the Riss-Würm interglacial, c. 130-110,000 BP.

terryt said...

Maju. I have made comments regarding implications of the earlier emergence on the post about Australian climate.

terryt said...

From the piece quoted: "pushed back the lower bound of the out-of-Africa migration, signed by the L3 radiation, to around 85 kya [13] ... when African faunas expanded to the Levant [15]. This contraction phase might be reflected in the basal roots of M and N lineages ... before their next radiation around 60 kya [13]".

Now that fits precisely with what I have been saying. And no matter how you look at it Y-chromosome diversification is more recent than mtDNA. So I'd go further and suggest that the 60 kya expansion is associated with the basal Y-chromosome expansion outside Africa, but the men hooked up with women who had already emerged.

Maju said...

And no matter how you look at it Y-chromosome diversification is more recent than mtDNA.

I don't agree nor see why that would be necesary. MtDNA tends to keep greater diversity (due to gender bias in reproductive success and patrilocality) but for the most part it does not need to be older, or at least much older.

I have made my own estimates based in known SNPs along the best studied branches and I can perfectly get very old and reasonable dates of Y-DNA diversification too: 100-120 KY for the diversifications of D, F and C. It's just an estimate anyhow.