Paragroup

Paragroup is a term used in population genetics to describe lineages within a haplogroup that are not defined by any additional unique markers. They are typically represented by an an asterisk (*) placed after the main haplogroup^[1]. The term "paragroup" is a portmanteau of the terms paraphyletic haplogroup indicating that paragroups form paraphyletic subclades.^[1]Apart from the mutations that define the parent haplogroup, paragroups may not possess any additional unique markers. Alternatively pargroups may possess unique markers that have not been discovered. If a unique marker is discovered within a paragroup, the specific lineage is given a unique name and is moved out of the paragroup to form an independent subclade.

An example of a paragroup is Haplogroup DE*. It has the marker that defines Haplogroup DE, but not the markers that define Haplogroup DE's most common subclades, haplogroup D and haplogroup E^[2]. An example of a lineage within a paragroup that was assigned a new name is haplogroup E1b1b1g. This haplogroup was previously part of haplgroup E1b1b1* (also known as e3b* or E-M35*) until the marker M293 was discovered in 2008.^[3]

Another example is a member of the Y-DNA haplogroup R (defined by marker M207) may belong to the sub-haplogroup R1 (defined by marker M173) or R2 (defined by marker M124). Individuals with neither of these mutations would be categorised as belonging to group R*.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} The Y Chromosome Consortium (2002). "A Nomenclature System for the Tree of Human Y-Chromosomal Binary Haplogroups". Genome Research (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press). doi:10.1101/gr.217602. http://genome.cshlp.org/content/12/2/339.full.pdf. 
2. ^ Weale et al. (2003). Rare Deep-Rooting Y Chromosome Lineages in Humans: Lessons for Phylogeography. http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/full/165/1/229. 
3. ^ Henn et al. (2008). Y-chromosomal evidence of a pastoralist migration through Tanzania to southern Africa. PNAS. http://www.pnas.org/content/105/31/10693.full.