Haplogroup B (mtDNA)

In human mitochondrial genetics, haplogroup B is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup.

Origin

Haplogroup B is believed to have arisen in Asia some 50,000 years before present. Its ancestral haplogroup was haplogroup R.

Its greater variety is in China. It is conspicuous that haplogroup B may have its earliest diversification in southern China and/or Southeast Asia.

Distribution

Haplogroup B is found frequently in southeastern Asia. A subclade of B4b that is labelled irregularly as B2 is one of five haplogroups found in the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the others being A, C, D, and X.

Because the migration to the Americas by the ancestors of Indigenous Americans is generally believed to have been from northeastern Siberia via Beringia, it is surprising that Haplogroup B and Haplogroup X have not been found in Paleo-Siberian tribes of northeastern Siberia. However, Haplogroup B has been found among Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic populations of Siberia, such as Tuvans, Altays, Shors, Khakassians, Yakuts, Buryats, Khamnigans, Negidals, and Evenks. This haplogroup is also found among populations in China, Indonesia, Iran,Iraq, Japan, Korea, Laos,Madagascar, Malaysia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Polynesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam.

Haplogroup B

Haplogroup B may refer to:

Haplogroup B-M60

In human population genetics, haplogroups define the major lineages of direct paternal (male) lines back to a shared common ancestor. Haplogroup B (B-M60) is a Y-chromosome haplogroup common to paternal lineages in Africa, in Arabian Peninsula and in Eurasia.

Distribution

Haplogroup B-M60 is found in sub-Saharan Africa, especially to tropical forests of West-Central Africa. After Y-haplogroup A, it is the second oldest and one of the most diverse human Y-haplogroups. It was the ancestral haplogroup of not only modern Pygmies like the Baka and Mbuti, but also Hadzabe from Tanzania, who often have been considered, in large part because of some typological features of their language, to be a remnant of Khoisan people in East Africa.

According to one study of the Y-DNA of populations in Sudan, haplogroup B-M60 is found in approximately 30% (16/53) of Southern Sudanese, 16% (5/32) of local Hausa people, 14% (4/28) of the Nuba of central Sudan, 3.7% (8/216) of Northern Sudanese (but only among Copts and Nubians), and 2.2% (2/90) of Western Sudanese. According to another study, haplogroup B is found in approximately 15% of Sudanese males, including 12.5% (5/40) B2a1a-M109/M152 and 2.5% (1/40) B-M60(xM146, M150, M112).