Haplogroup M (mtDNA)

In human population genetics , haplogroup M is one of the haplogroups identified by analyzing the sequence of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This haplogroup is widespread in Asia ^[4] , especially in India ^[5] . Nevertheless, the macrogroup M itself is one of the branches of the haplogroup L3 , from which it separated 60 to 75 thousand years ago ^{[2] [1]} . TMRCA for the basal non-African haplogroup M is about 49 thousand years (95% confidence interval: 54.8-43.6 thousand years) ^[6] . The ancestral haplogroup L3 in turn comes from the descendants of the hypothetical mitochondrial Eve from Africa.

Haplogroup M
Type of	mtDNA
Time of appearance	60 thousand years ago
Place of appearance	Asia [1] [2] or Africa [3]
Ancestral group	Haplogroup L3
Subclades	M1 , M *, CZ , Q , E , G , D
Marker Mutations	263, 489, 10400, 14783, 15043

Stephen Oppenheimer proposed for the macrogroup M the name of the clan Manyu. Referring to the research of Estonian geneticists Thomas Kivisild and Richard Willems, he wrote that the carriers of subclades M1 crossed the Red Sea and passed to the territory of present-day Ethiopia during the last ice age ^[7] .

Macrogroup M is the ancestor of several haplogroups. The most important of them are:

• CZ haplogroup
  • haplogroup C - common among the peoples of northern Asia, American Indians, and Latinos ^{[8] [9]} ;
  • haplogroup Z - common in Korea, northern China and Central Asia. However, it occurs most frequently among some peoples of Russia and among the Sami in the north of Scandinavia;
• haplogroup D - found in Central Asia, the Far East and among American Indians ^[10] ;
• haplogroup E - found in southeast Asia;
• haplogroup G - distributed in the north, east and center of Asia ^[11] . It occurs most frequently in northeastern Siberia;
• haplogroup M1 - found in western Eurasia and the Horn of Africa ^{[12] [1] [13]} . It originated in the Levant 40 thousand years ago ^[14] ; In Africa and the Middle East, subclades M1b and M1a are jointly distributed, in the Caucasus only the subclade M1a is distributed ^[15] .
• lines M2 - M6, as well as M18 and M25 are found only in India ^{[16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]} ;
• M7 - M10 and M21 - are widespread in eastern and southeastern Eurasia ^{[22] [23] [24] [25] [26]} ;
• M11 - found only among Chinese ^[27] ;
• M12 is a small group in Japan ^[27] ;
• In 2009, two independent publications reported the discovery of the subaccade M23 in the Austronesian population of Madagascar ^{[28] [29]} ;
• haplogroups M27 - M29 and Q - are localized in Melanesia and among Australian Aborigines ^{[30] [31]} ;
• haplogroups M31, M31a1 and M32 on the Andaman Islands ^{[32] [33]} ;
• haplogroups M33, M33a, M34, M34a, M35, M37a and M39 - M41 - in southern and southeast Asia ^{[34] [19] [35] [36] [37] [38]} ;

Subclades haplogroup M