Mitochondrial DNA Footprints from Western Eurasia in Modern Mongolia

Mongolia is located in a strategic position at the eastern edge of the Eurasian Steppe. Nomadic populations moved across this wide area for millennia before developing more sedentary communities, extended empires, and complex trading networks, which connected western Eurasia and eastern Asia until the late Medieval period. We provided a fine-grained portrait of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation observed in present-day Mongolians and capable of revealing gene flows and other demographic processes that took place in Inner Asia, as well as in western Eurasia. The analyses of a novel dataset (N = 2,420) of mtDNAs highlighted a clear matrilineal differentiation within the country due to a mixture of haplotypes with eastern Asian (EAs) and western Eurasian (WEu) origins, which were differentially lost and preserved. In a wider genetic context, the prevalent EAs contribution, larger in eastern and central Mongolian regions, revealed continuous connections with neighboring Asian populations until recent times, as attested by the geographically restricted haplotype-sharing likely facilitated by the Genghis Khan’s so-called Pax Mongolica. The genetic history beyond the WEu haplogroups, notably detectable on both sides of Mongolia, was more difficult to explain. For this reason, we moved to the analysis of entire mitogenomes (N = 147). Although it was not completely possible to identify specific lineages that evolved in situ, two major changes in the effective (female) population size were reconstructed. The more recent one, which began during the late Pleistocene glacial period and became steeper in the early Holocene, was probably the outcome of demographic events connected to western Eurasia. The Neolithic growth could be easily explained by the diffusion of dairy pastoralism, as already proposed, while the late glacial increase indicates, for the first time, a genetic connection with western Eurasian refuges, as supported by the unusual high frequency and internal sub-structure in Mongolia of haplogroup H1, a well-known post-glacial marker in Europe. Bronze Age events, without a significant demographic impact, might explain the age of some mtDNA haplogroups. Finally, a diachronic comparison with available ancient mtDNAs made it possible to link six mitochondrial lineages of present-day Mongolians to the timeframe and geographic path of the Silk Route.

Download Full-text

Ancient Mitochondrial Genomes Reveal Extensive Genetic Influence of the Steppe Pastoralists in Western Xinjiang

Frontiers in Genetics ◽

10.3389/fgene.2021.740167 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Chao Ning ◽

Hong-Xiang Zheng ◽

Fan Zhang ◽

Sihao Wu ◽

Chunxiang Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mitochondrial Dna ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Indigenous Populations ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Population Movement ◽

Mitochondrial Genomes ◽

Late Bronze Age ◽

Demographic Processes ◽

Mitochondrial Sequences ◽

Almost All

The population prehistory of Xinjiang has been a hot topic among geneticists, linguists, and archaeologists. Current ancient DNA studies in Xinjiang exclusively suggest an admixture model for the populations in Xinjiang since the early Bronze Age. However, almost all of these studies focused on the northern and eastern parts of Xinjiang; the prehistoric demographic processes that occurred in western Xinjiang have been seldomly reported. By analyzing complete mitochondrial sequences from the Xiabandi (XBD) cemetery (3,500–3,300 BP), the up-to-date earliest cemetery excavated in western Xinjiang, we show that all the XBD mitochondrial sequences fall within two different West Eurasian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) pools, indicating that the migrants into western Xinjiang from west Eurasians were a consequence of the early expansion of the middle and late Bronze Age steppe pastoralists (Steppe_MLBA), admixed with the indigenous populations from Central Asia. Our study provides genetic links for an early existence of the Indo-Iranian language in southwestern Xinjiang and suggests that the existence of Andronovo culture in western Xinjiang involved not only the dispersal of ideas but also population movement.

Download Full-text

Mitochondrial DNA variation, effective female population size and population history of the endangered Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser sinensis

Conservation Genetics ◽

10.1023/b:coge.0000006107.46111.bc ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 4 (6) ◽

pp. 673-683 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Si-Ming Zhang ◽

Deng-Qiang Wang ◽

Ya-Ping Zhang

Keyword(s):

Mitochondrial Dna ◽

Population Size ◽

Population History ◽

Chinese Sturgeon ◽

Female Population ◽

Dna Variation ◽

Acipenser Sinensis ◽

Effective Female Population Size ◽

History Of

Download Full-text

Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany ◽

10.1007/s00334-021-00844-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Christoph Schwörer ◽

Erika Gobet ◽

Jacqueline F. N. van Leeuwen ◽

Sarah Bögli ◽

Rachel Imboden ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Human Impact ◽

Central Europe ◽

Large Scale ◽

Mixed Forest ◽

Fire Risk ◽

Late Glacial ◽

Future Climate Change ◽

Agricultural Activity ◽

Fire Dynamics

AbstractObserving natural vegetation dynamics over the entire Holocene is difficult in Central Europe, due to pervasive and increasing human disturbance since the Neolithic. One strategy to minimize this limitation is to select a study site in an area that is marginal for agricultural activity. Here, we present a new sediment record from Lake Svityaz in northwestern Ukraine. We have reconstructed regional and local vegetation and fire dynamics since the Late Glacial using pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal. Boreal forest composed of Pinus sylvestris and Betula with continental Larix decidua and Pinus cembra established in the region around 13,450 cal bp, replacing an open, steppic landscape. The first temperate tree to expand was Ulmus at 11,800 cal bp, followed by Quercus, Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia and Corylus ca. 1,000 years later. Fire activity was highest during the Early Holocene, when summer solar insolation reached its maximum. Carpinus betulus and Fagus sylvatica established at ca. 6,000 cal bp, coinciding with the first indicators of agricultural activity in the region and a transient climatic shift to cooler and moister conditions. Human impact on the vegetation remained initially very low, only increasing during the Bronze Age, at ca. 3,400 cal bp. Large-scale forest openings and the establishment of the present-day cultural landscape occurred only during the past 500 years. The persistence of highly diverse mixed forest under absent or low anthropogenic disturbance until the Early Middle Ages corroborates the role of human impact in the impoverishment of temperate forests elsewhere in Central Europe. The preservation or reestablishment of such diverse forests may mitigate future climate change impacts, specifically by lowering fire risk under warmer and drier conditions.

Download Full-text

Late-glacial and Post-glacial history of the Chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.1964.0010 ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 248 (745) ◽

pp. 135-204 ◽

Cited By ~ 87

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Late Glacial ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Valley Floor ◽

Glacial Period ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Local Conditions ◽

Arable Farming ◽

History Of

This paper describes the morphology of a small piece of the Chalk escarpment near Brook in east Kent, and reconstructs its history since the end of the Last Glaciation. The escarpment contains a number of steep-sided valleys, or coombes, with which are associated deposits of chalk debris, filling their bottoms and extending as fans over the Gault Clay plain beyond. Here the fans overlie radiocarbon-dated marsh deposits of zone II (10 000 to 8800 B.C.) of the Late-glacial Period. The debris fans were formed and the coombes were cut very largely during the succeeding zone III (8800 to 8300 B.C.). The fans are the products of frost-shattering, probably transported by a combination of niveo-fluvial action and the release of spring waters; intercalated seams of loess also occur. The molluscs and plants preserved in the Late-glacial deposits give a fairly detailed picture of local conditions. The later history of one of the coombes, the Devil’s Kneadingtrough, is reconstructed. The springs have effected virtually no erosion and have probably always emerged more or less in their present position. In the floor of the coombe the periglacial chalk rubbles of zone III are covered by Postglacial deposits, mainly hillwashes. They are oxidized and yield no pollen, but contain rich faunas of land Mollusca, which are presented in the form of histograms revealing changing local ecological and climatic conditions. During most of the Post-glacial Period, from the end of zone III until about the beginning of zone VIII, very little accumulation took place on the coombe floor. But below the springs there are marsh deposits which span much of this interval. They yield faunas of considerable zoogeographical interest. The approximate beginning of zone VII a (Atlantic Period) is reflected by a calcareous tufa, which overlies a weathering horizon, and represents an increase in spring flow. Two clearance phases are deduced from the molluscan record. The first may have taken place at least as early as the Beaker Period (Late Neolithic/earliest Bronze Age); the second is probably of Iron Age ‘A’ date. In Iron Age times the subsoil was mobilized and a phase of rapid hillwashing began. As a result the valley floor became buried by humic chalk muds. The prime cause of this process was probably the beginning of intensive arable farming on the slopes above the coombe; a possible subsidiary factor may have been the Sub-Atlantic worsening of climate. The muds yield pottery ranging in date from Iron Age ‘Kentish first A’ ( ca . 500 to ca . 300 B.C.) to Romano-British ware of the first or second centuries A.D. Evidence is put forward for a possible climatic oscillation from dry to wet taking place at about the time of Christ. In the later stages of cultivation, possibly in the Roman Era, the valley floor was ploughed and given its present-day form.

Download Full-text

A Time Series of Prehistoric Mitochondrial DNA Reveals Western European Genetic Diversity Was Largely Established by the Bronze Age

Advances in Anthropology ◽

10.4236/aa.2012.21002 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 02 (01) ◽

pp. 14-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

François-Xavier Ricaut ◽

Murray P. Cox ◽

Marie Lacan ◽

Christine Keyser ◽

Francis Duranthon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Genetic Diversity ◽

Time Series ◽

Mitochondrial Dna ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Western European ◽

The Bronze Age

Download Full-text

Genetic variation among Asian populations of rice planthoppers, Nilaparvata lugens and Sogatella furcifera (Hemiptera: Delphacidae): mitochondrial DNA sequences

Bulletin of Entomological Research ◽

10.1017/s000748539900036x ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 89 (3) ◽

pp. 245-253 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

J.H. Mun ◽

Y.H. Song ◽

K.L. Heong ◽

G.K. Roderick

Keyword(s):

Mitochondrial Dna ◽

Dna Sequences ◽

Sequence Data ◽

Nilaparvata Lugens ◽

The Philippines ◽

Weather Data ◽

Sogatella Furcifera ◽

Cultivated Rice ◽

The North ◽

Asian Populations

AbstractMany species of insects associated with cultivated rice do not over-winter in Korea and Japan, but migrate into these areas each year. To understand better the origins of these immigrations as well as the geographic structure of rice pests in Asian rice growing regions, intraspecific variation in two species of delphacid planthoppers, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) and Sogatella furcifera Horvath, was examined. An 850 base pair region of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase-I (CO-I) was sequenced from a total of 71 individuals collected from 11 localities in seven countries: Korea, Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. In N. lugens, three haplotypes were found and all populations sampled shared a dominant haplotype. Localities in Korea contained two haplotypes and localities in China and the Philippines contained three. However, in samples from the Indochina peninsula no variation was detected either within or between populations, consistent with a hypothesis of regular migration and gene flow. These populations did not contain some haplotypes found in Korea, suggesting they were not the source of yearly immigration into Korea and, by extension, Japan. Populations from China did share haplotypes with Korea, which was consistent with the hypothesis that China was the source for yearly immigration into Korea. There was insufficient resolution to distinguish among populations in China. For N. lugens, the data suggested that populations south of the Red River Valley in Vietnam experienced regular mixing and were distinct from populations to the north which contributed to yearly immigrations. In S. furcifera, there was less differentiation among populations. Two haplotypes were found in all populations except Malaysia. The results for both species were consistent with seasonal weather data and indicated that more detailed analysis of DNA sequence data will be fruitful.

Download Full-text