# Population Genetics > mtDNA Haplogroups > X >  New map of mtDNA haplogroup X

## Maciamo

X is one of the rarest mitochondrial haplogroups in terms of frequency, yet one of the most widespread geographically. It is found throughout Europe, North Africa, the Near/Middle East, in most of Central Asia, parts of North Asia, and among Native North Americans (X2a). X is currently divided in four top branches (X1, X2, X3 and X4). 99% of Europeans belong to X2, which is further divided in 15 subclades (X2a to X2o). The most common subclades in Europe are X2b and X2c.

The highest frequencies of X have been observed among the Druzes of Lebanon (15%), among the Abkhazians of Georgia (10%), on the island of Orkney (7%) in northern Scotland, in Lombardy (6%), and in most ethnic groups of the North Caucasus (4-5%).

Haplogroup X seems to have first come to Europe during the Neolithic period. It has been found in Early Neolithic sites in Iberia and southern France (Cardium Pottery culture), in Megalithic sites in the Basque country, Navarre and Brittany, as well as in all Neolithic cultures derived from the Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in Central Europe. 

The R1b branch of the Indo-Europeans probably carried a small percentages of X2 lineages based on its strong presence around the Caucasus, but also on the fact that X2 was found in Central Asia, the Altai and in the modern population of the Tarim basin in Northwest China, where 20% of the men belong to Y-haplogroup R1b. 




Note the relative resemblance with the distribution of the Caucasian admixture from Dodecad.


*UPDATE:* a detailed page about the origins, history, distribution and subclades of haplogroup X is now available here.

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## adamo

I love how sleek he is with the 5% maximum......excellent representation of mtdna X.

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## Sile

> X is one of the rarest mitochondrial haplogroups in terms of frequency, yet one of the most widespread geographically. It is found throughout Europe, North Africa, the Near/Middle East, in most of Central Asia, parts of North Asia, and among Native North Americans (X2a). X is currently divided in four top branches (X1, X2, X3 and X4). 99% of Europeans belong to X2, which is further divided in 15 subclades (X2a to X2o). The most common subclades in Europe are X2b and X2c.
> 
> The highest frequencies of X have been observed among the Druzes of Lebanon (15%), among the Abkhazians of Georgia (10%), on the island of Orkney (7%) in northern Scotland, in Lombardy (6%), and in most ethnic groups of the North Caucasus (4-5%).
> 
> Haplogroup X seems to have first come to Europe during the Neolithic period. It has been found in Early Neolithic sites in Iberia and southern France (Cardium Pottery culture), in Megalithic sites in the Basque country, Navarre and Brittany, as well as in all Neolithic cultures derived from the Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in Central Europe. 
> 
> The R1b branch of the Indo-Europeans probably carried a small percentages of X2 lineages based on its strong presence around the Caucasus, but also on the fact that X2 was found in Central Asia, the Altai and in the modern population of the Tarim basin in Northwest China, where 20% of the men belong to Y-haplogroup R1b. 
> 
> 
> ...


druze is too modern a terminology , IMO ( the druze area on map ) its the dregs of the hattian southern empire

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## Angela

> druze is too modern a terminology , IMO ( the druze area on map ) its the dregs of the hattian southern empire


I don't know if I quite understand that...the Druze only formed as an ethno-religious population around 1000 years ago, from a number of different ancestries, according to their own oral traditions, and as seems to be confirmed by analysis of their yDNA and mt DNA lineages. The religion was founded around 1014-1017 by a Persian Ismaiili mystic and had converts from Antioch to Alexandria, although after brutal persecution, the current group may stem mostly from ancient populations of southern Lebanon and Syria. 

It is sometimes thought that they might be a pretty good proxy for the "farmer" populations that entered Europe with the Neolithic, because their religion, which has mandated strict endogamy since 1034, means that they did not get any gene flow from the latest movements north from Arabia or the SSA or East African through the slave trade, both of which affected other Levant populations after the Islamic conquest. I'm not quite convinced of that, because they have a great deal of "West Asian" in some calculators, which the Neolithic farmers in Europe so far tested do not. They are, however, quite close autosomally to the Sephardic and Ashkenazi populations. 

They are also internally endogamous, with certain areas dominated by certain clans, with each clan having slightly differing distributions of mtDNA and yDNA. I don't think such highly isolated and inbred communities descended from a few founders can necessarily tell us much about the source or direction of gene flow...certain subclades can rise to prominence just through drift. That mtDNA X may have originated in the greater Middle East does seem pretty likely to me, however.

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## Sile

> I don't know if I quite understand that...the Druze only formed as an ethno-religious population around 1000 years ago, from a number of different ancestries, according to their own oral traditions, and as seems to be confirmed by analysis of their yDNA and mt DNA lineages. The religion was founded around 1014-1017 by a Persian Ismaiili mystic and had converts from Antioch to Alexandria, although after brutal persecution, the current group may stem mostly from ancient populations of southern Lebanon and Syria. 
> 
> It is sometimes thought that they might be a pretty good proxy for the "farmer" populations that entered Europe with the Neolithic, because their religion, which has mandated strict endogamy since 1034, means that they did not get any gene flow from the latest movements north from Arabia or the SSA or East African through the slave trade, both of which affected other Levant populations after the Islamic conquest. I'm not quite convinced of that, because they have a great deal of "West Asian" in some calculators, which the Neolithic farmers in Europe so far tested do not. They are, however, quite close autosomally to the Sephardic and Ashkenazi populations. 
> 
> They are also internally endogamous, with certain areas dominated by certain clans, with each clan having slightly differing distributions of mtDNA and yDNA. I don't think such highly isolated and inbred communities descended from a few founders can necessarily tell us much about the source or direction of gene flow...certain subclades can rise to prominence just through drift. That mtDNA X may have originated in the greater Middle East does seem pretty likely to me, however.


I don't know what you mean...are you saying that the x in southern syria is druze and it only arrived there 1000 years ago ?
Before that there was no x there.

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## Angela

> I don't know what you mean...are you saying that the x in southern syria is druze and it only arrived there 1000 years ago ?
> Before that there was no x there.



I'm sorry, I wasn't clear, was I? :) What I didn't quite understand about your post is how you tie mtDNA "X" with Hattian culture in particular. As to the Druze I was agreeing with you that we shouldn't see any particular significance in the high levels present amongst them because they were formed from many groups in the Levant and perhaps beyond, and also the fact that they were formed by such a small founder group and almost immediately enforced endogamy means that those high levels may just be caused by drift. 

Since it seems to be tied in Europe to the Neolithic, I would speculate that it arrived via Anatolia perhaps, or northern Syria, with the Cardial and/or LBK cultures, which are far earlier than the Hattian culture, but as to it's origin, I don't know. Somehow, it made it's way to Siberia and across the Bering strait thousands of years ago. to appear in Amerindians.

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## Sile

> I'm sorry, I wasn't clear, was I? :) What I didn't quite understand about your post is how you tie mtDNA "X" with Hattian culture in particular. As to the Druze I was agreeing with you that we shouldn't see any particular significance in the high levels present amongst them because they were formed from many groups in the Levant and perhaps beyond, and also the fact that they were formed by such a small founder group and almost immediately enforced endogamy means that those high levels may just be caused by drift. 
> 
> Since it seems to be tied in Europe to the Neolithic, I would speculate that it arrived via Anatolia perhaps, or northern Syria, with the Cardial and/or LBK cultures, which are far earlier than the Hattian culture, but as to it's origin, I don't know. Somehow, it made it's way to Siberia and across the Bering strait thousands of years ago. to appear in Amerindians.


Hattian was the only match, cananatites and sumerians did not figure

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## Aberdeen

Although the level of mtDNA X is low for the Americas as a whole, it's concentrated in a few tribes, and reaches high levels in some parts of eastern Canada, with the Ojibwe having a rate of over 20%. It's X2, but apparently not the same X2 as in Europe, and I believe the current theory is that the European, North American and Asian (Altaic) versions of mtDNA X have been separate strains since X expanded out of the Middle East a long time ago.

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## adamo

Mtdna X is primarily composed of two distinct subgroups; X1 and X2, whose widespread and sporadic distribution have been the cause of much debate. X1 is largely found in north and east Africa. X2 is spread out widely throughout western Eurasia. X2 makes up about 2% of European mtdna lineages and is more strongly present in the near east, Caucasus region and Mediterranean Europe. In some western Eurasian groups, it is found in significant frequencies of 10-25%, though this is likely due to expansion following the last ice age 15,000 years ago. The real controversy surrounding mtdna X is it's place as one of the five mtdna haplogroups found in native Americans, where it is found exclusively in eastern North America at varying frequencies. In the Ojibwa of the Great Lakes region it is found at 25%. The Sioux have 15%, the Nuu-Chah-Nulth have slightly more than 10% and the Navajo have 7%. Oddly, X2 is entirely absent in Siberia, the proposed land route of the first migrations into the new world. Unlike the four Native American groups (A,B,C,D) mtdna X is entirely absent in east Asia, indicating that it played no role in the colonization of these areas. However, it's age estimate in the Americas, around 15,000 years of age, does indicate that members of this group were among the first modern humans there. One group in southern Siberia has been found containing X lineages, but the almost identical sequences in these individuals indicate recent gene flow into the area during the Neolithic expansions of agriculturalists."

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## adamo

Interesting frequencies in Eurasia can be found in Georgia (8%) and the Druze people (27%). The distribution among the Druze is as follows; 16% X1 and 11% X2. Oddly, Scotland's Orkney islands have 7% mtdna X.

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## KittyCorp

It's amazing how accurate my DNA grouping is to our (Anishnaabeg) oral history. It's really too bad that, because of politics, our history was buried and destroyed and our oral history sneered at. I love to actually see confirmation of our history in our very blood:)

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## rootseeker

Hi, I am new to everything regarding genetics but find the topic extremely interesting. I am far from knowledgeable on many of the topics of this website so please forgive any blunders. I am having difficulty tracing my lineage. Particularly my maternal one. My mother was from Puerto Rico. As far as I can tell most of her ancestors have been there for hundreds of years. 
FTDNA has my maternal haplogroup as x2m. I am having trouble finding the origin of this Mtdna. I have hit a brick wall tracing my maternal great grandmothers background. I know that my paternal gg-grandmother immigrated from the Canary Islands where x2 might be more readily found. But I do not know where my maternal side might have originated (could be the same place I guess)
Of all the possible matches on 23andme (almost 1000) there are only three other x2's. On Gedmatch out of 1500 possible matches there is only one x2m, seems unusual to me. Sorry for going on and on :) I have read some of the posts here and have found them very enlightening. I am hoping someone here might know a bit more about this haplogroup since there is very little information out there. I would be grateful for any information provided. Thanks

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## Carlos

I have X2b in my MyTrulyYoursAncestry results. I am Andalusian and if it can be used for statistics, I am delighted. Regards







97. Central Roman (670 AD) *..... 19.91* - CL36 - 

*X2b*

Ancient Group
Roman (0.0)

Modern Group
1. Tuscan (6.059)
2. North_Italian (6.723)
3. Italian_Abruzzo (11.87)
4. West_Sicilian (12.53)
5. Kosovan (12.61)
6. Spanish_Extremadura (13.81)
7. Spanish_Murcia (13.89)
8. Portuguese (14.14)

Similar Samples
Central Roman (590 AD) (5.247)
Central Roman (590 AD) (7.458)
North Roman Warrior (590 AD) (7.863)
Medieval Italy Abbadia SS Plague (1348 AD) (9.371)
Scythian Southern Moldova (270 BC) (9.726)

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## georg85

My haplogroup is X4 and my maternal ancestry is from South Russia. I have read that the only ancient X4 was found in Catacomb culture.

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