Haplogroups / Maternal line
U5
Europe's hunter-gatherer line
The story of this line
U5 is the signature maternal lineage of European hunter-gatherers. It survived the last glacial maximum in southern refuges, spread north again as the ice retreated, and was then largely displaced by farming populations. It persists at its highest frequencies among the Sami of northern Scandinavia.
What it traces
U5 sits on the family tree of mitochondrial DNA, passed from mother to child. Following it back means following your mother, her mother, and so on back, one unbroken thread. It says nothing about the thousands of other ancestors you had at the same depth, which is the single most common misunderstanding about haplogroups.
The route, roughly
- East African Rift about 150 thousand years ago
- Horn of Africa about 70 thousand years ago
- Arabian peninsula about 62 thousand years ago
- The Levant about 50 thousand years ago
- Central Europe about 33 thousand years ago
- Iberia about 20 thousand years ago
- Scandinavia about 9 thousand years ago
A route drawn from where the branch arose and where it is found today. It is the path of one thread through your ancestry, not a map of where your family as a whole came from.
Is U5 your haplogroup?
If you have taken a test with 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA, TellMeGen or Living DNA, the answer is already sitting in the raw data file they gave you. You do not need another test.
Sequencings reads the file in your browser. It is never uploaded, and you can confirm that in your browser’s network tab while it happens.
Common questions
What is haplogroup U5?
U5 is a branch of the human maternal family tree, traced through mitochondrial DNA, passed from mother to child. U5 is the signature maternal lineage of European hunter-gatherers. It survived the last glacial maximum in southern refuges, spread north again as the ice retreated, and was then largely displaced by farming populations. It persists at its highest frequencies among the Sami of northern Scandinavia.
How old is haplogroup U5?
It first appeared about 30,000 to 35,000 years ago, in Europe. That is a coalescence estimate with a wide margin, not a date.
How do I find out if U5 is my haplogroup?
If you have taken a home DNA test, the answer is already in the raw data file you were given. Sequencings reads that file in your browser and traces both lines without uploading anything.
Does haplogroup U5 tell me about my health?
No. Haplogroups describe one line of descent. They are not used to assess health risk, and anyone who tells you otherwise is overreaching.
Sources
van Oven M, Kayser M. 2009. Updated comprehensive phylogenetic tree of global human mitochondrial DNA variation. Hum Mutat 30(2):E386-E394. http://www.phylotree.org doi:10.1002/humu.20921