Overview
Haplogroup R-M7806 represents a deep and early branching lineage within the broader R2a structure, forming during the mid Holocene when populations across South and Central Asia were undergoing major transitions associated with the shift from mobile forager lifeways to more sedentary agricultural economies. M7806 sits phylogenetically close to the root of R2a diversification and captures a stage at which the lineage had begun to differentiate, but before the later explosive expansions that characterized downstream R2a branches. The geographic profile of R-M7806 points strongly toward an origin near the eastern Iranian Plateau or the greater Hindu Kush region. This placement matches patterns observed in early R2a diversification, where lineages split between eastward radiations into the Indian subcontinent and westward or northwestward expansions into Iran, Central Asia and occasionally the Caucasus. M7806 appears to belong to the earlier phase of this process, before the major demographic expansions that created the large R2a distributions seen today. In modern populations, R-M7806 occurs at extremely low frequencies and is generally detected through high resolution sequencing projects rather than population surveys. It appears sporadically in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern India. Its rarity highlights the long term survival of an ancient paternal branch that did not participate in large scale expansions but instead persisted within relatively isolated highland or foothill populations. Its presence also supports the interpretation that R2a had a wider early Holocene footprint across Southwest and South Central Asia.