Please can an underscore be added to the acceptable symbols for Haplogroups.

Question

I am R-ZZ19_1, but I have had to write it with a hyphen.

Answer 1

The most accurate way to report your haplogroup would be as just R-ZZ19.  FTDNA really shouldn't be reporting your haplogroup as ZZ19_1 anyways.

ZZ19 is on one of the two arms of the P1 palindrome, but as of right now it is anyone's guess as to which arm it is on. ZZ19_1 refers to the possible position on the arm closest to the centromere, and ZZ19_2 refers to the same position on the opposite side. Because the regions around those positions are so similar, NGS, Sanger sequence tests, and other similar tests can't yet tell them apart.

I just posted a similar answer to the same question regarding ZZ10.  Most of the 'ZZ' SNPs will be in the same situation.

Answer 2

Thanks Steve,

I believe we should try to accommodate those who are exploring deep ancestral links and discovering their personal SNPs on the Y chromosome.

When that haplogroup field was created we were looking at the ISOGG Y-DNA Haplogroup Tree

http://isogg.org/tree/

and the Y Chromosome Consortium (YCC)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_Chromosome_Consortium

for the acceptable nomenclature.

Is it likely that ZZ19_1 will be changed to a recognized YCC SNP name?  If so, would it work to have your haplogroup as R-DF27 (or the most downstream sub-clade you know yourself to be at http://isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_HapgrpR.html ) and in the note field explain your ZZ19_1 SNP?

I may just be overly concerned that too many people will say their haplogroup is something like R_M269 instead of R-M269.  Already there are a slew of people who say there haplogroup is something like M-269 or M269 or R1b-M269.

Thanks and sincerely, Peter