Haplogroup M a Mongolid marker?

[Polak]

If so, then that means Indians and Pakistanis are very Mongoloid in terms of mtDNA.

But that may not be the case...

The mitochondrial haplogroup M, first regarded as an
ancient marker of East-Asian origin4, 5, has been found at high frequency in
India6 and Ethiopia7, raising the question of its origin. (A haplogroup is a
group of haplotypes that share some sequence variations.) Its variation and
geographical distribution suggest that Asian haplogroup M separated from
eastern-African haplogroup M more than 50,000 years ago. Two other variants
(489C and 10873C) also support a single origin of haplogroup M in Africa. These
findings, together with the virtual absence of haplogroup M in the Levant and
its high frequency in the South-Arabian peninsula, render M the first genetic
indicator for the hypothesized exit route from Africa through eastern
Africa/western India. This was possibly the only successful early dispersal
event of modern humans out of Africa.

[Polak]

From some reading I've done on the web, it seems that some types of M are indeed Mongoloid markers. But I have yet to work out which ones.

On the other hand, the HpaI-1 morph gene is seen as a classic Mongoloid marker for sure. And thus far, it has only been found in one European population...

Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism in northern Greece.

Astrinidis A, Kouvatsi A.

Department of Genetics, Development, and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

The polymorphism of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was studied in 118 unrelated Greeks (from northern Greece) using total blood cell DNA and the restriction enzymes HpaI, BamHI, HaeII, MspI, AvaII, and HincII. One new morph was identified for MspI (named MspI morph 18Gr) and is the result of a mutation in a previously thought monomorphic site at 104 bp. HpaI morph 1 was detected for the first time in a European sample. Also, AvaII morph 13 was observed in Greece in a frequency higher (5.93%) than that found in any other population. Eighteen mtDNA types were identified, three of which are new [86-2 (1-3-1-4-9-2), 87-2 (2-3-1-1-13-2), and 88-2 (2-1-1-18Gr-1-2)] and can be derived from already known mtDNA types by single restriction site changes. Type 57-2 (2-3-1-4-13-2), which had been previously characterized as "Italian," was found with higher frequency (4.24%) in northern Greece. The calculation of genetic distances and chi-square values through Monte Carlo simulation shows that the Greek sample does not differ from the Italian sample.

[Tore]

I'm pretty sure it has become unamimous in that some sub-clades of Haplogroup M are of non-European origins.

I know it was considered to be sub-saharan for a while, although I am pretty confident in stating that such a theory has since been discarded.

In my opinion, haplogroup M, as the articles stated, is of "proto-Asian" origin, and surely arose before the divergence of Caucasoids (namely South Asians) and Mongoloids.