The Rh Negative Blog

The mystery of Haplogroup V (mtDNA)

The clade is believed to have originated around 9,800 years ago in the Near East and spread all over Europe via Iberia. Haplogroup V is a relatively rare mtDNA haplogroup, occurring in around 4% of native Europeans. Its highest concentration is among the Saami people of northern Scandinavia (~59%). It has been found at a frequency of approximately 10% among the Maris of the Volga-Ural region, leading to the suggestion that this region might be the source of the V among the Saami. Additionally, haplogroup V has been observed at higher than average levels among Cantabrian people (15%) of northern Iberia, and at a lower percentage among the adjacent Basque (10.4%).
Haplogroup V is also found in parts of Northwest Africa. It is mainly concentrated among the Tuareg inhabiting the Gorom-Gorom area in Burkina Faso (21%), Sahrawi in the Western Sahara (17.9%), and Berbers of Matmata, Tunisia (16.3%). The rare V7a subclade occurs among Algerians in Oran (1.08%) and Reguibate Sahrawi (1.85%).
A recent comment here has caught my interest as someone of British descent carried this marker and stated being of partial Jewish origin. That Jewish origin would be likely Sephardic and brought over to Britain via Iberia as well.

The Saami people of Northern Scandinavia seem to be the offspring of one of the very unique tribes once entering Iberia from the Near East who have mixed with the Basques amongst groups of Northern Africa indicating a migration via Northern Africa towards the Iberian peninsula once.

Unlike in most of Europe, the life of the Saami people has not changed much in the past few centuries.

We are being told that the Saami of Norway and Finland have between 5 and 7% rhesus negatives among them which is not a lot.

When it comes to the HLA-B27 allele, maximum frequencies are observed among the Saami (20% in northern Sweden, 15% in Norway), then in the rest of Fennoscandia, in Belgium, England and Scotland.

HLA-B27 plays a very protective role in the case of HIV/AIDS.

So let’s take a quick look at the V and HLA-B27 distributions in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East:

HLA-B27 frequencies map:

Scroll down to the haplogroup mtDNA V frequency map to see just how similar the distribution is.

Haplogroup mtDNA V frequencies map:

Comparing mtDNA V frequencies to HLA-B27 distribution, the similarities are striking.

The real mystery to me is why so many scientists out there claim that there is no connection as different alleles are being passed on differently. Which is sort of personal to me as the same people deny correlation between blood type frequencies and genetic markers.
There are actual studies out there indicating very strong connections, yet the medical and scientific journals refuse to publish those as the dim-witted editors immediately disregard those as “being too out there”.

So here is my question to you:

If you carry haplogroup mtDNA V, what is your blood type, where is your ancestry from and are you aware of whether or not you carry the HLA-B27 allele?

Thank you very much in advance for your replies. And if you are on Facebook and want to learn more about Haplogroup V, there is a nice group where you can get some great information:

mtDNA Haplogroup V