In
human genetics,
Haplogroup F is a
Y-chromosome haplogroup. This haplogroup and its
subclades contain more than 90% of the world's existing male population, including almost everyone outside of
Africa, except for
Tibet,
Kazakhstan,
Mongolia,
Japan,
Polynesia, and communities of
indigenous Australians, while also including many men within those regions.
Haplogroup F is an ancestral haplogroup to Y-chromosome haplogroups
G (M201),
H (M52),
I (M170),
J (12f2.1), and
K (M9) along with K's descendant haplogroups (
L,
M,
N,
O,
P,
Q, and
R).
Origins
This ancient haplogroup may have first appeared in
India,
North Africa, the
Levant, or the
Arabian Peninsula as much as 50,000 years ago: 50,300±6500, Hammer and Zegura 2002; 48,000(38,700-55,700)
. It is sometimes believed to represent a "second-wave" of expansion out of
Africa. However, the location of this lineage's first expansion and rise to dominance appears to have been in
South Asia or somewhere close to it within extended
Middle East; all of Haplogroup F's descendant haplogroups also show a pattern of radiation from South Asia (haplogroups H and K) or the Middle East (haplogroups G and IJ).
Several lineages derived from Haplogroup F appear to have migrated into Africa from a homeland in
Southwest Asia sometime during prehistory. Y-chromosome haplogroups associated with this hypothetical "Back to Africa" migration include
J,
R1b, and
T.
Besides the major clades G, H, IJ, and K, other patrilines derived from Haplogroup F-M89 can still be detected at a very low frequency among many populations of the southern fringe of Eurasia and Oceania, from
Portugal in the west to
Korea and the
Malay Archipelago in the east.
India,
Korea, and the
Ailao Mountains of
Yunnan Province in southwestern
China appear to be the only regions where such lineages, which are grouped for convenience as Haplogroup F
*, comprise a significant portion of the Y-chromosome diversity of the modern populations. Haplogroup F* Y-chromosomes have been found to be particularly common among the Kucong or
Yellow Lahu, a group of hunter-gatherers who live in the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan. Korean F* probably reflects a rare brother clade of haplogroups G, H, IJ, and K that may have experienced a geographically limited expansion during historical times, as such Haplogroup F* Y-chromosomes have not been found among the neighboring
Japanese.
Distribution
Subclades
Tree
This phylogenetic tree of haplogroup subclades is based on the YCC 2009 tree
[ and subsequent published research.]
- *F (P14, M89, M213, P133, P134, P135, P136, P138, P139, P140, P141, P142, P145, P146, P148, P149, P151, P157, P158, P159, P160, P161, P163, P166, P187)
