Haplogroup Q-M242

Haplogroup Q
Possible time of origin	17,200 to 31,700 years ago (approximately 24,500 years BP)
Possible place of origin	Central Asia,South Central Siberia) or the Indian subcontinent
Ancestor	P1-M45
Descendants	Q1 (L232/S432)
Defining mutations	M242
Highest frequencies	Kets, Selkups, Inuit, the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Akha people of northern Thailand, Dayak people of Indonesia, several tribes of Assam and Turkmens

Haplogroup Q or Q-M242 is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It has one primary subclade, Haplogroup Q1 (L232/S432), which includes numerous subclades that have been sampled and identified in males among modern populations.

Q-M242 is the predominant Y-DNA haplogroup among Native Americans and in some regions of Central Asia and Northern Siberia.

Haplogroup Q-M242 is one of the two branches of P1-M45. (The other is R-M207.)

Q-M242 is believed to have arisen around the Altai Mountains area (or South Central Siberia), approximately 17,000 to 31,700 years ago. However, the matter remains unclear due to limited sample sizes and changing definitions of Haplogroup Q: early definitions used a combination of the SNPs M242, P36.2, and MEH2 as defining mutations.

Karafet et al. (2014), stated: "rapid diversification process of K-M526 likely occurred in Southeast Asia, with subsequent westward expansions of the ancestors of haplogroups R and Q."

The technical details of M242 are:

In Y chromosome phylogenetics, subclades are the branches of a haplogroup. These subclades are also defined by single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or unique-event polymorphisms (UEPs). Haplogroup Q-M242, according to the most recent available phylogenetics has between 15 and 21 subclades. The scientific understanding of these subclades has changed rapidly. Many key SNPs and corresponding subclades were unknown to researchers at the time of publication are excluded from even recent research. This makes understanding the meaning of individual migration paths challenging.

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