Research Article
| François-Xavier Ricaut 1 2 *, Christine
Keyser-Tracqui 1, Laurence Cammaert
3, Eric Crubézy 2, Bertrand Ludes
1 2 |
1Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire,
Institut de Médecine Légale, 67085 Strasbourg, France
2Anthropobiologie, Université Paul Sabatier,
CNRS, UMR 8555, 31000 Toulouse, France
3Laboratory of Anthropology and Prehistory,
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium |
| email: François-Xavier Ricaut (fx.ricaut@infonie.fr) |
*Correspondence to François-Xavier Ricaut,
Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire, Institut de Médecine Légale, 11 rue
Humann, 67085 Strasbourg Cedex, France
Funded by: French Department of Research
| Keywords: ancient DNA • STRs • HV1 region • haplogroup • Scythian • Central Asia |
|
We extracted DNA from two skeletons belonging to the Sytho-Siberian
population, which were excavated from the Sebÿstei site (dating back 2,500
years) in the Altai Republic (Central Asia). Ancient DNA was analyzed by
autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) and by the sequencing of the hypervariable
region 1 (HV1) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region. The results
showed that these two skeletons were not close relatives. Moreover, their
haplogroups were characteristic of Asian populations. Comparison with the
haplogroup of 3,523 Asian and American individuals linked one skeleton with a
putative ancestral paleo-Asiatic population and the other with Chinese
populations. It appears that the genetic study of ancient populations of Central
Asia brings important elements to the understanding of human population
movements in Asia. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. |
Received: 13 September 2002; Accepted: 31
March 2003
10.1002/ajpa.10323
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