The Y-Haplogroup R SRY2627/L176.2/Z198 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 2013) R1b1a2a1a1b5a in the tree used by Family Tree DNA and R1b1a2a1a1b1a2a1 in the ISOGG 2013 tree (see http://www.isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_HapgrpR.html). It is not a large subgroup of R1b, but it is found particularly in places where R1b1 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.
The 2011 FTDNA and ISOGG haplogroup trees recognised 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).
Very little is known 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.

Z198 is a mutation discovered in 2011/2 by a group of "citizen scientists" investigating data published by the 1000 Genomes Project. Along with several other SNPs discovered in R-SRY2627 samples, it has been included in the chip for the Geno 2.0 Project. It appears to be upstream of SRY2627 and equivalent to L176.2. Anyone with Z198+ amongst their Geno 2.0 results is very welcome to join this Project.

L165 (aka S68) is downstream of L176.2 and Z198, and is parallel to SRY2627. It has been found mainly in lines of Scottish and Scandinavian ancestry. We are investigating the connection between this "northern" group with the "southern" SRY2627+ branches.
L165 also has its own FTDNA Project. FTDNA/Geno 2.0 customers with L165+ are welcome to join both projects.