MtDNA Haplogroup I Project- Background

Administrators

Background

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Hello!  We welcome everyone whose mtDNA test results indicate that they belong to mtDNA Haplogroup I.

MtDNA Haplogroup I is a Eurasian haplogroup that is relatively rare and one of the older mtDNA haplogroups in Europe. Reportedly, in areas where it is found, it is typically at a frequency range of 2% to 4% in modern-day populations. Research indicates that haplogroup I was more prevalent in certain populations in the past, specifically, among Vikings and Iron-Age Danes. 1,2 (See references below.) We hope this project will allow us to learn more about the various branches of Haplogroup I and where they are found.

Our Project features a summary of members' Results (displaying maternal ancestor information, plus HVR1/HVR2 results) and a mapping tool. On the Results page, members are grouped according to either their specific subclade (whenever possible) or by another relevant category. On this page, it is interesting to see the names and origins of our members' earliest known direct maternal ancestors. The Mapping tool allows you to view the earliest known origins on a world map. You can select options to view 'All' or any subgroup of haplogroup I on the map. This feature gives indications of where various subclades have migrated and settled. As our Project grows, this feature will become increasingly meaningful.

If you have knowledge of your maternal line, we would appreciate it if you would fill in data for your earliest known direct maternal ancestor on your FTDNA page (under "Account" > "Most Distant Ancestors"). This ancestor should be female and represents the line of your mother's mother's mother's mother... (etc.) as far back as you know. This line of data that you fill out -- preferably with name, birth year, and location -- will automatically appear on our project's main Results page. Again, if you know the country of origin for your mtDNA line, please include that information both on the line of data that will be displayed on the Results page and for the mapping feature. The earliest known origin of your mtDNA line is especially useful in the study of your branch.

There are now much LOWER PRICES for the FULL-SEQUENCE mtDNA Test! This test is also known as the FMS and Mega. It includes the entire mtDNA genome and is the ultimate mtDNA test you can ever get. For all of you who've tested both HVR1 and HVR2, it will cost only $159 to upgrade to the Mega test! For those who have  had just HVRI testing, it will cost $169. (And for those who are just now looking at an mtDNA test, it will cost $199 to go straight to the full-sequence test.) After years of seeing the price of the FMS gradually drop from the heights, it's finally becoming really affordable. This is a great chance to learn more about your mtDNA. With this, we will be able to make much more accurate assessments of who is related, and which subclade you belong to.

Please note: There are now two systems used for reporting mtDNA mutational differences, the rCRS and the RSRS (which are two reference samples used for mtDNA comparisons). It you notice that your results do not seem to match your group label as shown on the Project page, go to your personal results' page at FTDNA and choose the option to view the rCRS values. That should clear up the confusion. If not, let us know.

In the upper left of this web page, if you use the drop-down menu for "About This Group," you can access additional pages ("Goals," "News," & "Results") with more information about Haplogroup I and this Project.


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Reference Links and Quotations:

1 Melchior, L.; Kivisild, T.; Lynnerup, N.; Dissing,J. (May 28, 2008). Evidence of Authentic DNA from Danish Viking Age Skeletons Untouched by Humans for 1,000 Years. PLoS ONE 3 (5): e2214. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2386972/ (May 6, 2013)

"Among present day Scandinavians Hg I constitutes <2% [55], [56], however, we have previously observed a markedly higher frequency (10–20%) of Hg I in Danish Iron Age and Viking Age population samples (TableS3) [16], [21]. With the observation of Hg I for subject G6 this trend is also seen for the Viking population sample from Galgedil. Interestingly, Hg I shows a low frequency (1 out of 114 subjects) among other ancient populations in Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and early central European farmers [11], [12], [43], [57]." (Melchior 2008)

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2  Hofreiter, L.; Lynnerup, N.; Siegismund, H.; Kivisild, T.; Dissing, J. (July 30, 2010). Genetic Diversity among Ancient Nordic Populations. PLoSONE 5 (7): e11898. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2912848/ (May 6, 2013)

"The overall occurrence of haplogroups did not deviate from extant Scandinavians, however, haplogroup I was significantly more frequent among the ancient Danes (average 13%) than among extant Danes and Scandinavians (~2.5%) as well as among other ancient population samples reported. Haplogroup I could therefore have been an ancient Southern Scandinavian type “diluted” by later immigration events." (Hofreiter 2010)

"We have previously observed a high frequency of Hg I's among Iron Age villagers (Bøgebjerggård) and individuals from the early Christian cemetery, Kongemarken [16], [17]. Thistrend was also found for the additional sites reported here, Simonsborg, Galgedil and Riisby. The overall frequency of Hg I among the individuals from the Iron Age to the Medieval Age is 13% (7/53) compared to 2.5% for modern Danes [35]. The higher frequencies of Hg I can not be ascribed to maternal kinship, since only two individuals share the same common motif (K2and K7 at Kongemarken). Except for Skovgaarde (no Hg I's observed) frequencies range between 9% and 29% and there seems to be no trend in relation to time." (Hofreiter 2010)

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