SHETLAND ISLANDS mtDNA: RESEARCH STUDIES

While there does not appear to be any studies specifically devoted to the mtDNA of individuals residing on the Shetland Islands, a few studies have included the nearby Orkney Islands (which has a similar history).  It is to those studies that we must turn to obtain a glimpse at what is likely to be found in relation to the Shetland Islands. 1)  James F. Wilson et al., 2001 The conclusion of this article was that the "similarity of the non - Basque European Populations means that there is no power to apportion the Orcadian maternal heritage into Scandanavian and pre - Anglo-Saxon Bristish components by using the avalable mtDNA data".  In other words, all European populations are very similar (and in many cases virtually identical) in terms of the percentage of each mtDNA haplogroup - and there is nothing in particular to distinguish the maternal lineages of the Orkney Islands. 2)   Agnar Helgason et al., 2001 Table 3 in this article shows the percentage of each haplogroup (e.g., J2) in a variety of populations including Ireland, Scandanavia, Scotland, and Orkney.  It is apparent on visual inspection that the populations are very similar - for example each has between 4 to 5% of haplogroup K.  In all of these populations, haplogroup H is the most common (about 40% of each of the above populations). Through a complex statistical analysis, however, it was possible to estimate the percentage of Scandanavian and Gaelic ancestry in Orkney versus three parts of Scotland - the Western Isles, Skye, and the NW Scottish coast - as presented in Table 4.  The latter three were virtually identical with about 12% Scandanavian and 88% Gaelic maternal ancestry.  Orkney, however, differed quite dramatically from the other three Scottish locations having approximately 35% Scandanavian and 65% Gaelic contribution to the maternal genetic pool - virtually identical to Iceland. 3) Sarah Goodacre et al., 2005 This article is in a sense an extension of the above work.  The authors explore the Scandinavia and British / Irish ancestral (Y-DNA and mtDNA) contribution to the present day populations of Shetland, Orkney, Scottish Northwest coast, Western Isles and Skye and Iceland.  The findings in relation to Shetland (with a sample size of 503) point to a 43% Scandinavian contribution and 57% British / Irish contribution.  The former figure is higher than any of the above noted populations.  For example Iceland showed only a 34% Scandinavian and 66% British / Irish component to the population; and Orkney the figures were 31% and 69%.  It will be important to examine the sepecific sequences used to make this determination (see below for summary).  Again, a statistical analysis using formulae that have embedded in them certain assumptions which may or may not be met make these results tenuous.  There is no specific haplogroup that characterizes Scandinavia over British / Irish in the same sense as R1a is clearly a marker of a Scandinavia presence.  To download this article click here.

HVR1 Sequences from Goodacre 2005 Study of 503 Shetland Sequences H-CRS = 103         HV = 1                 I = 6                T = 14 H = 69                   HV2 = 3               J = 35              T1 = 3 H-Other = ?          U4 = 9                  J1a = 1            T2 = 15 H1a = 12               U5 = 31                J1b1 = 11 H1b = 1                 U5a1 = 11             J2 = 2 H1f or HV = 5       U5a1a = 2             K = 16 H5 = 18                 U5b = 1                K2 = 2 H6 = 7                   L2 = 2                 W = 1 V = 13                   L3e = 1                X = 3

The above table was constructed with the assistance of Dr. Ann Turner and Dr. Jim Wilson. The assignments are based only on HVR1 sequences whereas proper work of this nature requires HVR2 as well as coding region data which was not available for this study.  Thus the above is a reasonable "guestimate" but nothing more.

Note:  The above represent but a small sample of the research articles on mtDNA.  Most of the published papers will be found in the "Library" section of the following sites: 1)  www.familytreedna.com 2)  www.oxfordancestors.com 3)  www.historicalgenetics.com

mtDNA Pins available from www.dnapin.com for each Haplogroup

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