Haplogroup



A haplogroup (from the Greek:ἁπλούς, haploûs, "onefold, single, simple" and English:group), is a combination of alleles at different chromosomes regions that are closely linked and that tend to be inherited together. It is a group of individual organisms which, in terms of molecular evolution, share a common ancestor – a genetic line of descent demonstrated by a particular single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation. Because a haplogroup consists of similar haplotypes, it is usually possible to predict a haplogroup from haplotypes.