the whole idea of the Ultimate Universe, besides luring in newer readers with new continuity and no 40-odd years of history to bog things down, was to make it more connected. everything's connected, SHIELD, mutants, super-soldiers, Fantastic 4, the works. half of the super-beings in UMU have powers owing to the US government's attempts to recreate the super-soldier serum and that's where mutants came from. Wolverine was mutant #1 and the mutant gene went viral.