In
human genetics, 'Haplogroup N' (LLY22G, M231) is a
Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup.
This haplogroup appears in
Central Europe,
Northern Europe, and throughout both the European and Asian parts of
Russia.
Haplogroup N is a descendant haplogroup of
Haplogroup NO, and is believed to have first appeared in
Siberia,
Mongolia, or
China approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. It is believed to have been transported across Eurasia by large-scale human migrations of peoples who, according to some theories, were speakers of
Uralic languages.
In regards to the geographic origin of Haplogroup N, it is important to note that Y-chromosomes belonging to Haplogroup N as well as undifferentiated or paraphyletic
Haplogroup NO
★ both occur at low frequencies among populations of East Asia, including the relatively isolated
Japanese, and that
Haplogroup O, which is the "brother" to Haplogroup N in the Y-chromosome phylogenetic tree, is found almost exclusively in East Asia, where it is the modal haplogroup. This may be taken to suggest a prehistoric relationship between the proto-Uralians and most of the ancestors of various peoples who are archaeologically and historically associated with the region of
China. However, some commentators have noted that
Haplogroup Q, which is the modal haplogroup among
Native American populations, as well as
Haplogroup R, which is the modal haplogroup among
European populations, and even
Haplogroup P
★ , which is ancestral to both Haplogroup Q and Haplogroup R, are found at low to moderate frequency throughout most of East Asia. Thus, the detection of Y-chromosomes that belong to Haplogroup N among populations as geographically and, otherwise, genetically distant as the
Finns and the
Vietnamese may not necessarily be indicative of a recent common ancestry of the two peoples.
Haplogroup N is the ancestral group for N1, N2, and N3. Y-chromosomes that display the LLY22g and M231 mutations that define Haplogroup N but do not display any of the downstream mutations that define the subclades N1, N2, and N3 are said to belong to Haplogroup N
★ . Haplogroup N
★ is rarely found among modern human populations, although it is relatively common among populations of southwestern
China.
Subgroups
The
subclades of Haplogroup N with their defining mutation, according to the 2006 ISOGG tree:
★ N (LLY22g, M231)
★
★ N
★
★
★ N1 (M128) ''Found at a low frequency among
Manchu,
Sibe,
Manchurian
Evenks,
Koreans, northern
Han Chinese,
Buyei, and some
Turkic peoples of
Central Asia''
★
★ N2 (P43) ''Typical of
Northern Samoyedic peoples; also found at low to moderate frequency among some other
Uralic peoples,
Turkic peoples,
Mongolic peoples,
Tungusic peoples, and
Eskimos''
★
★
★ N2
★
★
★
★ N2a (P63)
★
★ N3 (Tat (M46)) ''Typical of the
Sakha and
Uralic peoples, with a moderate distribution throughout
North Eurasia''
★
★
★ N3
★
★
★
★ N3a (M178)
★
★
★
★ N3a
★
★
★
★
★ N3a1 (P21)
External links
★
Map of N
★
Spread of Haplogroup N, from
The Genographic Project, ''
National Geographic''
★
N Y-DNA Haplogroup Project at FamilyTreeDNA