Haplogroup K2-M70

By Jide Uwechia (April 04, 2008)

Haplogroup K2 (M70, M184, M193, M272) is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is a subclade of Haplogroup K.

Haplogroup K2 is present throughout Africa in varying degrees. Its highest frequency is also found in Africa, particularly Somalia. It is also present in Southwest Asia, South Asia, and Southern Europe, and, at an even lower level, throughout Europe.

For instance, Haplogroup K2-M70 has been detected in 8.3% (10/121) of Omani Arab, 8.2% (12/147) of Egyptian, 7.2% (10/139) of Iraqi and 10.4% (21/201) of Somali males, which is much higher than its frequency in other populations.

Other regions that have been found to contain a significant proportion of haplogroup K2 individuals include South India (18/305 or 5.9%), United Arab Emirates (8/164 or 4.9%), Ethiopia (6/126 or 4.8%), East India (14/367 or 3.8%), South Iran (4/117 or 3.4%), and Turkey (13/523 or 2.5%). One must recall that East India, Arabia, and south Iran have a huge population of Dark Brown people of African descent living there even today. Those are the K2 type people.

Without doubt, it seems clear that K2 is a marker of demic movement of a Brown/Black population moving from Africa outwards across the globe which explains why their descendants have varying degrees of dark complexion.

Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States was a K2; his Y-chromosomal complement received prominence through the Sally Hemings controversy.