Haplogroups are used to represent the major branch points on the mitochondrial phylogenetic tree.
Understanding the evolutionary path of the female lineage has helped population geneticists trace the matrilineal inheritance of modern humans back to human origins in Africa and the subsequent spread around the globe.
The hypothetical woman at the root of all these groups (meaning just the mitochondrial DNA haplogroups) is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for all currently living humans.
It is an area of ongoing research with one study reporting one mutation per 8000 years.
[2] This phylogenetic tree is based Van Oven (2009).
Contemporary human mtDNA haplogroup distribution, based on analysis of 2,054 individuals from 26 populations.
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(a) Pie charts on the map. (b) Counts of haplogroups in table format. For populations details, see
1000 Genomes Project#Human genome samples
.
mtDNA haplogroup tree and distribution map.
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The numbers are haplogroup labels, reported according to the
http://www.phylotree.org/
nomenclature,
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and give the location of one of the mutations leading to the derived haplotype. (Only a single branch defining marker, preferably from the coding region, is shown.) The main geographic features of haplogroup distribution are highlighted with colour.
Dispersal route of human mtDNA haplogroups
Estimated world map of human migrations based on mtDNA haplogroups.
