FUNDAMENTAL GENETIC PROCESSES AND MECHANISMS

Phylogeography of the non-recombining maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been broadly used to shed light on different aspects of demographic history of human populations. We have analyzed about 2000 mtDNA of native populations from the Russian Pacific to the Atlantic coast of France using the sequencing of the first hypervariable segment on mtDNA control region and combined it with RFLP typing of informative coding region polymorphisms. Specific attention was paid to the people speaking Uralic languages (Maris, Komis, Mordvins, Udmurts) and to the Altaic language family speakers of Turkic (Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashis, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Nogays, Uighurs) and Tungusic (Oroks) branches. Except Udmurts, the Volga basin populations encompass only a limited share of mtDNA haplogroups typical for eastern Asians and native Siberians, their frequency being somewhat higher (10%-11%) among Turkic speakers than among Finno-Ugric speaking populations. In contrast, among Uralic-speaking Udmurts their share is 27%. Surprisingly, the majority of mtDNA of Nogays, who are supposed to descent from Mongoloid Golden Horde inhabitants, belong also to western Eurasian variants of maternal lineages (∼63%), testifying about an extensive admixture within about the last 750 years. Further eastwards (Kazakhs and Uzbeks), the frequency of eastern Asian mtDNA haplotypes start to exceed those typical for western Eurasia, reaching more than 60 % among Kazakhs. Thus, with only a little variation, there is a clear east-west gradient of the “Mongoloid ” mtDNA lineages alongside the Steppe Belt and linguistic affinities of populations play a lesser role