This male haplogroup is found primarily in East Asia, Magar-ethnic Nepal and the Andaman Islands.
[7] Several studies (Hammer et al. 2006, Shinoda 2008, Matsumoto 2009) suggested that paternal haplogroup D-M174 originated in Central Asia.
Rather, haplogroup D was part of the standing variation carried by the Eastern OOA expansion, and later lost from most of the populations except in Andaman and partially in Japan and Tibet".
[9] A 2019 study by Haber et al. showed that Haplogroup D-M174 originated in Central Asia and evolved as it migrated to different directions of the continent.
It argues that these lineages then rapidly expanded across Eurasia, diversified in Southeast Asia, and expanded westward around 55,000–50,000 years ago, replacing other local lineages within Eurasia; haplogroup D (as D-M174) then underwent rapid expansions within Eastern Eurasian populations and consists of five branches that formed about 45,000 years ago.
[11] Haplogroup D-M174 is found today with high frequency among populations in Tibet, Magar-ethnic Nepal, northern Myanmar, Qinghai, the Japanese archipelago, and the Andaman Islands, though curiously not as much in the rest of India.
Haplogroup D-M174 chromosomes are also found at low to moderate frequencies among the Bai, Dai, Han, Hui, Manchu, Miao, Tujia, Xibe, Yao, and Zhuang peoples of China and among several minority populations of Sichuan and Yunnan that speak Tibeto-Burman languages and reside in close proximity to the Tibetans, such as the Jingpo, Jino, Mosuo, Naxi, Pumi, Qiang, and Yi.
[12] Haplogroup D is also found in populations in China proper and in Korea, but with much lower frequency than in Tibet and Japan.
[13] In another study of Han Chinese Y-DNA published in 2011, haplogroup D-M174 was observed in 1.94% (7/361) of a sample of unrelated Han Chinese male volunteers at Fudan University in Shanghai, with the origins of most of the volunteers being traced back to East China (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui).
Little high-resolution data regarding the phylogenetic position of Han Chinese and Korean members of Y-DNA haplogroup D has been published, but the available data suggests that most Han Chinese members of haplogroup D should belong to clades found frequently among Tibetans (especially the D-M15 clade, also found among speakers of some Lolo-Burmese and Hmong-Mien languages), whereas most Korean members of haplogroup D should belong to the D-M55 clade, which is found frequently among Ainu, Ryukyuan, and Japanese people.
[19][17][3] Haplogroup D Y-DNA has been found (albeit with low frequency) among modern populations of the Eurasian steppe, such as: It has also been found among linguistically similar (Turkic- or Mongolic-speaking) modern populations of the desert and oasis belt south of the steppe, such as Yugurs, Bao’an, Monguors, Uyghurs, and Uzbeks.
In commercial testing, members have been found as far west as Romania in Europe and Iraq in Western Asia.
[29] Subsequently, Y-DNA belonging to haplogroup D-M15 has been found frequently among Tibeto-Burman-speaking populations of Southwestern China (including approximately 23% of Qiang,[2][30][31] approximately 12.5% of Tibetans,[2] and approximately 9% of Yi[2][32]), and among Yao people inhabiting northeastern Guangxi (6/31 = 19.4% Lowland Yao, 5/41 = 12.2% Native Mien, 3/41 = 7.3% Lowland Kimmun),[33] with a moderate distribution throughout Central Asia, East Asia, and continental Southeast Asia (Indochina).
[38][3] D1b (L1378, M226.2) has been found in commercial testing in two families from Mactan Island in the Cebu region of the Philippines, in the ethnic Rade people from Vietnam as well as an ancient sample from Malaysia.
[19] Kharkov et al. found haplogroup D*(xD-M15) in 6.3% (6/96) of a pool of samples of Southern Altaians from three different localities, particularly in Kulada (5/46 = 10.9%) and Kosh-Agach (1/7 = 14%), though they did not test for any marker of the subclade D-M55 or D-P99.
Kharkov et al. also reported finding haplogroup DE-M1(xD-M174) Y-DNA in one Southern Altaian individual from Beshpeltir (1/43 = 2.3%).