Which peer‑reviewed population genetic studies provide high‑resolution subclade maps of R1b‑U106 within Germany, the Netherlands and Britain?
Executive summary
The clearest peer‑reviewed population‑genetics paper in the provided material that maps R1b subclades including U106 at regional resolution is the PMC study "A major Y‑chromosome haplogroup R1b Holocene era founder effect in Central and Western Europe," which includes principal‑component and spatial autocorrelation analyses of U106 frequencies across many European populations [1]. Other detailed maps and breakdowns of U106 in Germany, the Netherlands and Britain in the supplied reporting are drawn from forum maps, project pages and review/overview PDFs rather than peer‑reviewed population‑genetics articles [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7].
1. Peer‑reviewed, high‑resolution mapping: what the PMC [1] paper provides
The study available on PubMed Central presents a continent‑scale analysis of R1b subclade frequencies, explicitly genotyping markers including U106 and reporting principal component analyses and spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s I) for U106 among many sampled populations, thereby offering a peer‑reviewed statistical mapping of U106 distribution suitable for regional comparisons across Germany, the Low Countries and Britain [1].
2. What that peer‑reviewed study can and cannot do for fine‑scale national maps
While the PMC paper analyzes U106 frequency variation and spatial structure across 118 populations collapsed into regional units and computes correlograms that are statistically significant for U106, its focus is broad (Central and Western Europe) and the sampling scheme collapses localities into larger regional groups, so it is best interpreted as a high‑quality, peer‑reviewed regional map rather than a hyper‑fine subclade map at municipal or county resolution within Germany, the Netherlands or Britain [1].
3. Other detailed maps in the provided reporting are non‑peer‑reviewed syntheses or community projects
Multiple high‑resolution distribution maps and percentage lists attributed to U106 in the supplied material originate from Eupedia forum threads, community migration maps and genealogy projects that synthesize public datasets or commercial testing results; these include detailed regional percentages and maps for the Netherlands, northern Germany and England but are forum‑based or project‑based and not peer‑reviewed [2] [3] [4] [8] [5].
4. Authoritative overviews and genealogy projects supplement but are not substitutes for peer review
A detailed "U106 explored" overview PDF compiles branching, geography and historical interpretation for U106 and estimates ages and regional proportions, and genealogy groups (FamilyTreeDNA, Geni projects) provide deep subclade trees and modern distributional claims, yet these sources are methodological overviews or commercial/genealogical resources rather than population‑genetics papers subject to peer‑reviewed sampling protocols and statistical tests [6] [7] [9].
5. How to interpret the literature mix: weight peer‑reviewed statistics, scrutinize forum maps
The peer‑reviewed PMC paper should be treated as the standard in the supplied set for statistical mapping of U106 [1]; forum and project maps are valuable for hypotheses and finer anecdotal patterns (e.g., hotspots in Frisia and the central Netherlands) but require validation against transparent sampling frames and peer‑reviewed datasets before being used as definitive subclade maps for Germany, the Netherlands or Britain [4] [5].
6. Conclusion and gap statement — what remains to be found in peer‑reviewed form
Based on the provided reporting, the PMC article is the explicit peer‑reviewed source offering high‑resolution subclade analysis that includes U106 across Europe [1]; virtually all other high‑resolution maps and localized percentage breakdowns in the supplied materials derive from forums, overview PDFs or commercial/genealogical projects and therefore do not substitute for additional peer‑reviewed, population‑level mapping studies focused specifically on intra‑national subclade structure in Germany, the Netherlands and Britain [2] [3] [6] [4] [7] [5].