Haplogroup NO (Y-DNA)

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In human genetics, Haplogroup NO (M214) is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. Haplogroup NO is a descendant branch of the greater Haplogroup K (M9) and a phylogenetic sibling of Haplogroup K2, Haplogroup L, Haplogroup M, and Haplogroup P.

The M214 mutation that defines Haplogroup NO occurred in a gamete of a man who belonged to Haplogroup K and who probably lived somewhere in Eurasia east of the Aral Sea about 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. This man has become the direct patrilineal ancestor of a very large percentage of present-day humans, as he is the forefather of both Haplogroup N and Haplogroup O, which together are overwhelmingly dominant throughout North and East Eurasia.

Haplogroup NO*, which comprises all Y-chromosomes in the Haplogroup NO-M214 line that do not belong to either of the common descendant haplogroups N or O, is found extremely rarely among the males of modern human populations, with its highest reported sampled frequency being about 2.3%, or 6 of 259 individuals, in a sample of men from Japan.^[1] The same study also reported finding Haplogroup NO* Y-chromosomes at even lower frequencies among males from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. However, a comparison with other studies of Y-chromosome variation in the East Eurasian region shows that Haplogroup NO* Y-chromosomes have actually been found only among populations of Xinjiang in western China near the border with Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan; among populations of Inner Mongolia that speak an Altaic language; among populations that reside in close proximity to the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and speak a Tibeto-Burman language; and, of course, among populations of Japan. The general impression is that Haplogroup NO* patrilines persist at low but detectable frequencies on the (particularly western and northeastern) fringes of China or the greater Sinosphere. Nowhere do Haplogroup NO* Y-chromosomes comprise more than a tiny fraction of the total Y-chromosome diversity of any population.

The reason for the nearly complete extinction of Haplogroup NO* patrilines, in stark contrast with the preeminent success of Haplogroup NO-M214's other descendants, Haplogroup N in North Eurasia and Haplogroup O in East Eurasia, is unclear; however, this situation seems to be a good parallel to the near-extinction of Haplogroup P* patrilines in all regions except northern Central Asia despite the dominance of Haplogroup P's other descendants, Haplogroup R and Haplogroup Q, in West Eurasia and the Americas, respectively. It is likely that both repeated founder effects and strong genetic drift in small ancestral populations of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers are responsible for shaping the Y-chromosome distribution that is found in modern human populations.

The subclades of Haplogroup NO with their defining mutation, according to the 2006 ISOGG tree:

NO (M214)
- NO*
- N (LLY22g, M231)
  - N*
  - N1 (M128) Found at a low frequency among Manchu, Sibe, Manchurian Evenks, Koreans, northern Han Chinese, Buyei, and some Turkic peoples of Central Asia
  - N2 (P43) Typical of Northern Samoyedic peoples; also found at low to moderate frequency among some other Uralic peoples, Turkic peoples, Mongolic peoples, Tungusic peoples, and Eskimos
    - N2*
    - N2a (P63)
  - N3 (Tat (M46)) Typical of the Sakha and Uralic peoples, with a moderate distribution throughout North Eurasia
    - N3*
    - N3a (M178)
      - N3a*
      - N3a1 (P21)
- O (M175)
  - O*
  - O1 (MSY2.2)
    - O1*
    - O1a (M119) Typical of Austronesians, southern Han Chinese, and Tai-Kadai peoples
      - O1a*
      - O1a1 (M101)
      - O1a2 (M50, M103, M110)
  - O2 (P31, M268)
    - O2*
    - O2a (M95) Typical of Austro-Asiatic peoples, Tai-Kadai peoples, Malays, and Indonesians, with a moderate distribution throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Central Asia
      - O2a*
      - O2a1 (M88, M111)
        
        O2a1*
        
        O2a1a (PK4)
      - O2a2 (M297)
    - O2b (SRY465 (M176))
      - O2b*
      - O2b1 (P49) Typical of Koreans
        
        O2b1*
        
        O2b1a (47z) Typical of Japanese and Ryukyuans
  - O3 (M122) Typical of populations of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and culturally Austronesian regions of Oceania, with a moderate distribution in Central Asia
    - O3*
    - O3a (M324)
      - O3a*
      - O3a1 (M121, DYS257)
      - O3a2 (M164)
      - O3a3 (LINE1, M159) Found at low to moderate frequency throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia, especially among Hmong-Mien peoples and Han Chinese
      - O3a4 (M7)
        
        O3a4*
        
        O3a4a (M113, M188, M209)
        
        O3a4a*
        
        O3a4a1 (N4)
        
        O3a4a2 (N5)
      - O3a5 (M134) Typical of Sino-Tibetan peoples, with a moderate distribution throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia
        
        O3a5*
        
        O3a5a (M117, M133)
        
        O3a5a*
        
        O3a5a1 (M162)
        
        O3a5b (P101)
      - O3a6 (M300)
      - O3a7 (M333)