Description

Mitochondrial haplogroup N (not to be confused with Y-DNA haplogroup N) is one of the two major out-of-Africa maternal lineages, alongside M. From N descended haplogroup R (which gave rise to H, U, J, T, and many other European lineages), as well as several other distinctive branches. N lineages are found across Eurasia, Oceania, and the Americas.

Interesting Fact

N and M are the two daughters of L3 that together account for all non-African maternal lineages. They likely represent two distinct waves or routes of the Out-of-Africa migration — or perhaps a single migration that rapidly diverged upon entering Eurasia.

Distribution by Ethnicity

Ethnic distribution Region Frequency Sample
Europeans (average) Europe
55%
n=5000
Native Americans (average) Americas
50%
n=2000

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References

  1. Macaulay et al. (2005) — Single, rapid coastal settlement of Asia revealed by analysis of complete mitochondrial genomes. Science 308(5724), 1034–1036.