V mtDNA

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About us

Haplogroup V

The mtDNA haplogroup V is believed to have originated around the Western Mediterranean region, approximately 13,600 years before present - possibly on Iberia. It is found with particularly high concentrations in the Saami People of northern Scandinavia, as well as the Basque people (10.4%) and somewhat higher among the isolated Pasiegos in nearby Cantabria. It also is found in particularly high concentrations (16.3%) among the Berbers of Matmata, Tunisia. The highest levels are in Scandinavian and Western and North African populations. It is spread at varying low levels across Europe and smaller portions of West and Central Asia.

Haplogroup HV members with 16298C (and 72C) are also invited to join this group. These mark the subgroup HV0 which is pre-V, just upstream of V. 

Subgrouping is done according to:
  • Phylogeny from phylotree.org (van Oven 2016) 
  • mt-tree at Yfull with preliminary names
  • project adminstrators preliminary named subclades  
  • Million Mito Project (upcoming) - this can change the structure of the mitotree adding many upstream branches

Ancestral Info

mtDNA is inherited strictly through the direct maternal line. To learn more about the origins of the various subclades of V, it is important that all V-members fill in their ancestral information under Plot Ancestral Location. Enter full name, approximate years of birth/death, place, county and country. If unknown because of adoptions or other, please explain under Direct Maternal Ancestor on the Earliest Known Ancestors tab. 

Also note that your 
Direct Maternal Ancestor is the name of your mother's mother's mother etc - it is always a woman. Please also plot the location of this direct maternal ancestor on the map. 

Please fill in 
full birth name (or earliest known name), years of birth and death, place, and country. Examples: 

• Ingrid Olsd Hagen 1689-1765 Valdres OPL
• Brita Andersdotter 1794-1851 Ystad (M)
• Mary Donohue 1845-1899 Limerick Ireland
• Trintje van der Toorn b 1649 Leiden Holland


Please share your Coding Region

If you have completed the mtFull test (FMS), please consider sharing your Coding Region with the project administrators. The coding region results are not shown on the project page and will not be made public, and by default they are also hidden from the project administrators. The coding region results are essential for identifying your lowest level daughter group, for estimating the age of each daughter group, for identifying new daughter groups and for filling in the fine details on the V tree. 

To share your coding region results with the project administrators:
1. Log in with your Kit Number and password
2. Click on your Name in the top right corner and select
Account Settings (1st menu option)
3. Click on the
PROJECT PREFERENCES tab (4th tab across)
4. Scroll down to the
Coding Region Sharing section
5. Next to
Opt in to Sharing, ensure the button is set to ON to share your mtDNA coding region data

Note that in order to request assistance, you must give project administrators Limited or Full access. Otherwise your results and information are hidden (and there is little point in being a member). 
Research and Information

In his book "The Seven Daughters of Eve" (2001), author Bryan Sykes called this group 'Clan of Velda'. Note that a lot of research has been done since then.

Papers that can be downloaded or requested in full-text:
• Torroni et al. (2001):
"A Signal, from Human mtDNA, of Postglacial Recolonization in Europe". References to this article usually mention the highest percentages in the Basque and Saami populations, but when you look at the raw numbers and sample sizes V's also appear in 27 other population groups.
• Tambets et al. (2004):
"The Western and Eastern Roots of the Saami". American Society of Human Genetics. "The results indicate that the origin of [...] V [in Sami population], is most likely in western, rather than eastern, Europe. [...] It suggests that the large genetic separation of the Saami from other Europeans is best explained by assuming that the Saami are descendants of a narrow, distinctive subset of Europeans. In particular, no evidence of a significant directional gene flow from extant aboriginal Siberian populations into the haploid gene pools of the Saami was found."
• Alzualde et al. (2005):
"Temporal Mitochondrial DNA Variation in the Basque Country: Influence of Post-Neolithic Events" is an article that says that V was not present in the ancient Basque population, even though it is a significant percentage of the current population.
• Max Ingman and Ulf Gyllensten (2006): 
"A recent genetic link between Sami and the Volga-Ural region of Russia". This is a study of Sami mtDNA, among other types also V.

The Wikipedia page for
Haplogroup V (mtDNA) also has information and references to research papers.

Community

There is a Haplogroup V (mtDNA) Group on Facebook, where members can post queries, comment etc.

Gratitude and photo credit for the Project banner (and to see the photo in its entirety): Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash