W6 is identified by the 4093 and 8614 coding region mutations, and the HVR1 16325 mutation. The vast majority also have a 16192 HVR1 mutation. W6, together with W3, W4, and W5, were descendants of a woman with a 194 mutation born in northwest India around 15,000 years ago. W6 appeared in the area between the Black and Caspian Seas, perhpas in what is now Georgia, around 11,000 years ago. In both HVR and Coding Region results, W6 graphs as many unrelated lineages, geographically seperate, indicating a wide dispersal a very long time ago. The distribution of modern results, unique among W subgroups, seems to indicate a migration into Anatolia, then into Europe. This would correspond to the spread of agriculture by the first Neolithic farmers beginning 10,000 years ago. There is another thread, along the trade routes of Russia and Asia, and then down into India. This could represent very early population movements in the immediate post-glacial period; or the later trade in slaves along the same routes.
The identified W6 subgroups are:
- W6a, with the 8610 coding region mutation, which emerged in the Russian steppes 6,000 years ago. Surviving lineages are found in Lithuania, Russia, and Slovakia.
- W6b, with 4646, 6297, and 8605 mutations in the coding region. This emerged in the middle east 7,000 years ago. Current descendents are found in Dubai, among Palestinians, and in Great Britain.
- W6c, with seven coding region mutations. No geographic location known as yet.
How to Read These Phylogenetic Trees
Charting the more numerous W6 HVR1 results shows some possible geographic migration structure, but 'invisible' coding region mutations make associations at the HVR level tenuous (seemingly related individuals may only represent independent HVR mutations and have very different coding region mutations). Many more full genome results are needed for W6's before the course of the W6 migrations can be better understood.
W6 reaches its highest concentration in modern-day Georgia (5.2% of the population).
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