title: Mitochondrial DNA analysis of horses recovered from a frozen tomb (Berel site, Kazakhstan, 3rd Century BC).
abstract: Sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop was used to determine the genetic diversity of horses recovered from a Scythian princely tomb dating from the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Eight haplotypes were found among the 13 ancient horse samples tested. Phylogenetical analysis showed that these ancient horse's sequences, along with two Yakut ones, were distributed throughout the tree defined by modern horses' sequences and are closely related to them. No clear geographical affiliation of the specimens studied was thus determined. Our work, among others, supports the very ancient origin of the matrilines in horses.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire, Institut de Médecine Légale, 11 rue Humann, 67085 Strasbourg Cedex, France. ckeyser@mageos.com
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keyser-Tracqui
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blandin-Frappin
authors.forename: H-P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Francfort
authors.forename: F-X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Ricaut
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lepetz
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Crubézy
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Samashev
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ludes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology; D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D005580:Fossils; D005615:Freezing; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D006736:Horses / Q000235:genetics*; D007623:Kazakhstan; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial