Useful Resources for your mtDNA researches

Roberta Estes site DNA Explained

Roberta Estes has written a number of very useful pages explaining what mitochondrial DNA is and how to use it:

• Part 1: Mitochondrial DNA
• Part 2: What do all those numbers mean
• Part 3: Haplogroups unravelled

The official Haplotree

With the increasing access to full-sequence mtDNA data in the mid-2000’s the researcher Manis van Oven and others undertook complex work of determining the tree of descent and identifying the Haplogroups. The first published tree was in 2008 and the most recent version was in 2016. This tree is available at Phylotree.org. It is the tree which Family Tree DNA uses to identify their testers.

YFull

The independent DNA Analysis company YFull who are normally known for their YTree have also undertaken to dynamically extend the standard phylotree. Their version of the tree is at www.yfull.com/mtree. Newer branches are highlighted in light green, or orange for low confidence branches. YFull also add ancient DNA samples to their mtree. They also provide estimates of the age of a branch.

SNPTracker

The scaledinovation site, authored by Rob Spencer, also contains an excellent version of the standard Phylotree, showing modern samples obtained from FTDNA, and ancient samples (click on the skulls) from Carlos Quiles website. Data from YFull is not included, so their new branches don’t appear. However, estimated ages do appear as well as the countries of the FTDNA testers. The Map shows an estimated migration route for the particular Haplogroup.

mt Clade Finder

If you have taken an mtDNA full-sequence test and have a FASTA file from a DNA company apart from FTDNA you may not get a Haplogroup assignment. Hunter Provyn and Thomas Krahn (from the testing company YSEQ) has provided a useful online tool to help you identify the Haplogroup for that FASTA file. Even if you have tested at FTDNA it’s worth trying it, as this tool uses the YFull dynamic mtree, so you might discover you are in a new branch. The tool can be found at Hunter’s phylogeographer.com site.