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Y-DNA R Subclade
Posted by: Ralph on the 28 June 2009 | Permalink
I have been meaning to write this up for some time, however I delayed in doing so as the information was and continues to be quite vague.
Also over the last few months I have been contacted by distant relatives associated with the Jenkins and Holloway trees. This has resulted in additional branches of the various family trees being created and some errors being corrected. What a wonderful distraction to grow the trees and discover an ever increasing extended family.
Back to the DNA, the subclade test reveals a result of R1b1b2a1a (S21+, aka M405) that was previously known as R1b1b2a.
It would appear that a unique feature with this subclade is an unusually short DYS458 alleles (DYS458.2) – in plain english as best as I understand, an “alleles” is an individual’s genotype for a particular gene.
Cases of this allele have been detected in Ireland, England, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. (1-5%) and appears to be a unique west European marker. However very little information is available on this so I imagine over time it may become more clearer.
The R1b1b2a1 (S21+) is a prominent R1b subclade and is likely the major subclade in resolving identity after the R1b1b2 (M269+) subclade. It’s frequency is highest in the Dutch (35%) and it is also rather high in England, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic and Switzerland (13-23%). This region overlaps origins of Germanic groups, such as the Anglo-Saxons in Frisia. It does not appear to have extended its reach beyond West and Central Europe (except recent migration to the U.S.). Genebase 2009.
It is also suggested that U106 / M405 / S21 – R1b1b2a1a = 25% of western European males that includes the “Frisian” group.
It now appears that further tests have become available within the last few months that will define a further marker within the S21 subclade – something that I intend to follow through.
I will provide an update when the results are available. Going forward I will be flying to New Zealand within the next few weeks to visit family, then back for a few days and off again to Tasmania. I haven’t been to Tassie before so it should be interesting.