Q-M242 is the predominant Y-DNA haplogroup among Native Americans, Swati tribe and several peoples of Central Asia and Northern Siberia.

[15] Q-M242 is believed to have arisen around the Altai Mountains area (or South Central Siberia),[3] approximately 17,000[3] to 31,700 years ago.

The polymorphism, "M242", is a C→T transition residing in intron 1 (IVS-866) of the DBY gene and was discovered by Mark Seielstad et al. in 2003.

The scientifically accepted one is the Y Chromosome Consortium (YCC) one published in Karafet 2008 and subsequently updated.

A draft tree that shows emerging science is provided by Thomas Krahn at the Genomic Research Center in Houston, Texas.

The subclade (under Q-MEH2) proposed by Sharma (2007), which shows polymorphism (ss4bp, rs41352448) at 72,314 position of human arylsulfatase D pseudogene, is not represented in any current trees under Q-MEH2.

[21] The most plausible explanation for this could be an ancestral migration of individuals bearing Q-MEH2 to the Indian subcontinent followed by an autochthonous differentiation to Q-ss4bp.

Most of them are descendants of the major founding groups who migrated from Asia into the Americas by crossing the Bering Strait.

They may have not been from the Beringia Crossings but instead come from later immigrants who traveled along the shoreline of Far East Asia and then the Americas using boats.

(Q-M3 occupies 46% among Q in North America)[23] On the other hand, a 4000-year-old Saqqaq individual belonging to Q1a-MEH2* has been found in Greenland.

Surprisingly, he turned out to be genetically more closely related to Far East Siberians such as Koryaks and Chukchi people rather than Native Americans.

[24] Today, the frequency of Q runs at 53.7% (122/227: 70 Q-NWT01, 52 Q-M3) in Greenland, showing the highest in east Sermersooq at 82% and the lowest in Qeqqata at 30%.

[8] The frequencies of Q among the whole male population of each country reach as follows: Q-M242 originated in Asia (Altai region), and is widely distributed across it.

), Mongolia,[42] China,[43][44] Uyghurs,[42] Tibet,[45] Korea, Japan, Indonesia,[46] Vietnam,[47] Thailand,[48] India,[49] Pakistan,[49] Afghanistan, Iran,[50] Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and so on.

In Siberia, the regions between Altai and Lake Baikal, which are famous for many prehistoric cultures and as the most likely birthplace of haplogroup Q, exhibit high frequencies of Q-M242.

[7] Russian ethnographers believe that their ancient places were farther south, in the area of the Altai and Sayan Mountains[3] (Altai-Sayan region).

[8] Karafet et al. (2018) found Q-L54(xM3) in 2.7% (2/75) and Q-M25 in another 2.7% (2/75) for a total of 5.3% (4/75) haplogroup Q Y-DNA in a sample of Khalkha Mongols from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

[61] In another study published in 2011, Hua Zhong et al. found haplogroup Q-M242 in 3.99% (34/853, including 30/853 Q-M120, 3/853 Q-M346, and 1/853 Q-M25) of a pool of samples of Han Chinese from northern China and 1.71% (15/876, including 14/876 Q-M120 and 1/876 Q-M346) of a pool of samples of Han Chinese from southern China.

[63] Q1a1 is attested in over 3,000 year old Han Chinese ancestral remains in the Shang and Zhou dynasties from the Hengbei archeological site.

[67] Haplogroup Q was not observed in a sample of 39 Keriyan Uyghurs (克里雅人) from the village of Darya Boyi, located on the Keriya River deep in the Taklamakan Desert.

However, Macholdt et al. (2020) have tested a sample of fifty Kinh people from northern Vietnam (all but one of whom are from the Red River Delta region, and 42 of whom are from Hanoi) and found that two of them (4%) belong to Q-M120.

[89] Wells et al. 2001 found P-M45(xM120, M124, M3, M173), which should be roughly equivalent to a mix of Q-M242(xM120, M3) and R2-M479(xR2a-M124), in 20/366 = 5.5% of a pool of samples of Uzbeks from seven different regions of Uzbekistan.

[90][91] In this study(Cristofaro 2013), Turkmens of Jowzjan Province which is neighboring to Turkmenistan show the highest frequency at 33.8% (25/74: 23 Q-M25, 2 Q-M346), followed by Uzbeks at 8.7% (11/144: 6 Q*, 1 Q-M25, 4 Q-M346).

[104] In another study, 2.6% of Tharus in Chitwan district and 6.1% (3/49) of Hindus in New Delhi, the capital of India were found to be Q-M242 positive.

Q-M242 is found in about 2% of Russians,[107] 1.5% of Belarusians,[108] 1.3% of Ukrainians[citation needed] 1.3% of Poles (Poland),[109] 2% of Czechs,[110] 1.5% of Slovaks,[111] about 2.2% of Hungarians,{citation needed} 1.2% of Romanians,[112] 0.8% of Moldovans,[113] and 0.5% (4/808: 2 Q-M378, 1 Q-M346, 1 Q-M25) of Bulgarians[114] On the other hand, 3.1% of Székelys from Transylvania (who have claimed to be descendants of Attila's Huns) turned out to be P* (xR1-M173),[115] which virtually means Q-M242.

[116][117] The Caucasus region shows a frequency at 1.2% in a study,[94] but it may reach over 4% in Azerbaijan, in that 4.9% of the neighboring Iranian Azerbaijanis harbor Q-M242.

By county, they are distributed intensively in the southern region (Götaland,: not to be confused with Gotland), and rarely to the north.

In Western Europe, Q-M242 is observed at very low frequencies, around 0.5% in most of the countries, such as Germany, France, United Kingdom, etc., but some regions show a little higher.

And, surprisingly, Q-M242 in Shetland (also in some areas of Scandinavia, Faroe Islands, Iceland, and the United Kingdom) has turned out to be generically closely linked to the Q-M242 in Central Asia.

[127] Also, it is about 0.6% in Italy, but it rises to 2.5% (6/236) in Sicily, where it reaches 16.7% (3/18) in Mazara del Vallo region, followed by 7.1% (2/28) in Ragusa, 3.6% in Sciacca,[128] and 3.7% in Belvedere Marittimo.