The Y-Haplogroup R SRY2627+ and L176.2+ Project- Background

Background

SRY2627 (also known as M167) was one of the first Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered in the human Y chromosome, back in 1997.
It is now known to denote a subgroup of haplogroup R1b1 - the most common haplogroup in Western Europe. The subgroup was formerly known as R1b1c6 and is currently (March 2011) R1b1a2a1a1b5a in the tree used by Family Tree DNA and R1b1b2a1a2c1 in the ISOGG 2011 tree (see http://www.isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_HapgrpR.html). It is not a large subgroup of R1b1b, but it is found particularly in places where R1b1b is very common - Iberia (especially the north and west i.e. the Basque Country and Catalunya), south western France and up the Atlantic coast to England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
Academic research papers and other published information about R-SRY2627 are being referenced on a Wikipedia page here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R1b1b2a1a2c_(Y-DNA)

L176.2 is a mutation discovered in FTDNA's own research lab.
(It is now known to be the same as mutation M100 which was discovered around 2000 but remained unpublished).
The 2011 FTDNA and ISOGG haplogroup trees recognise L176.2 as being "upstream" of SRY2627 (i.e. the  SRY2627 mutation occurred in an individual whose paternal line already had the L176.2 mutation).
Nothing is known yet about its geographical distribution and anyone who has a L176.2+ result (whether also SRY2627+ or not) is encouraged to join this Project to help investigate its origins, history and relevance to genetic genealogy.