This is clearly a European gene, one that has traveled, selectively, to other parts of the world. We have named it after the famous trader Marco Polo. The Polo family’s home was in Illyria and Croatia, which boast one of the highest incidences of this marker today—23%. Other high rates of occurrence are in Indo-Mongoloids, the successors of Genghis and Kublai Khan (23%), Russia – Novgorod (22%), Cherokees (20%) and Melungeons (17%). North American whites show the Marco Polo Gene at an average of 15%. At the opposite end of the scale are Austronesians (4%) and Native Americans (6%). The percent of Lumbee Indians, like Cherokees, is higher than most American Indians, reflecting probably their European origins/admixture. Croatia leads in the list of countries contributing that admixture.
