Haplogroup R1a

Haplogroup R1a, or haplogroup R-M420, is a common Y DNA haplogroup in many parts of Eurasia. One sub-clade (branch) of R1a, haplogroup R1a1, is much more common than the others in all major geographical regions. R1a1, defined by the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation M17, (and sometimes alternatively defined as R-M198), is particularly common in a large region extending from South Asia and southern Siberia to Central Europe and Scandinavia (Underhill 2009).The R1a family is defined most broadly by the SNP mutation M420, which was discovered after M17. The discovery of M420 resulted in a reorganization of the lineage in particular establishing a new paragroup (designated R-M420*) for the relatively rare lineages which are not in the R-SRY10831.2 (R1a1) branch leading to R-M17.A large, 2014 study by Underhill et al., using 16,244 individuals from over 126 populations from across Eurasia, concluded there was compelling evidence, that R1a-M420 originated in Iran.