title: Strong genetic admixture in the Altai at the Middle Bronze Age revealed by uniparental and ancestry informative markers.
abstract: The Altai Mountains have been a long-term boundary zone between the Eurasian Steppe populations and South and East Asian populations. To disentangle some of the historical population movements in this area, 14 ancient human specimens excavated in the westernmost part of the Mongolian Altai were studied. Thirteen of them were dated from the Middle to the End of the Bronze Age and one of them to the Eneolithic period. The environmental conditions encountered in this region led to the good preservation of DNA in the human remains. Therefore, a multi-markers approach was adopted for the genetic analysis of identity, ancestry and phenotype markers. Mitochondrial DNA analyses revealed that the ancient Altaians studied carried both Western (H, U, T) and Eastern (A, C, D) Eurasian lineages. In the same way, the patrilineal gene pool revealed the presence of different haplogroups (Q1a2a1-L54, R1a1a1b2-Z93 and C), probably marking different origins for the male paternal lineages. To go further in the search of the origin of these ancient specimens, phenotypical characters (i.e. hair and eye color) were determined. For this purpose, we adapted the HIrisPlex assay recently described to MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. In addition, some ancestry informative markers were analyzed with this assay. The results revealed mixed phenotypes among this group confirming the probable admixed ancestry of the studied Altaian population at the Middle Bronze Age. The good results obtained from ancient DNA samples suggest that this approach might be relevant for forensic casework too.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, CNRS, UMR 5288, Institut de Médecine Légale, Université de Strasbourg, France. Electronic address: clemence.hollard@etu.unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Clémence
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hollard
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, CNRS, UMR 5288, Institut de Médecine Légale, Université de Strasbourg, France; Laboratoire AMIS, CNRS, UMR 5288, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France. Electronic address: ckeyser@unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keyser
authors.affiliation: Institut des Déserts et des Steppes, Paris, France. Electronic address: institutdesdeserts@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pierre-Henri
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Giscard
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mongolia. Electronic address: ts_turbat@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Turbat
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsagaan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mongolia. Electronic address: n_bayaraa2001@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Noost
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bayarkhuu
authors.affiliation: Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, Germany. Electronic address: Jan.Bemmann@uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bemmann
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, CNRS, UMR 5288, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France. Electronic address: crubezy.eric@free.fr.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Crubézy
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire AMIS, CNRS, UMR 5288, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France; Université Paris Descartes, Institut Médico-Légal de Paris, France. Electronic address: ludes@unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ludes
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D005819:Genetic Markers
keywords: Admixture; Altai Mountains; Ancient DNA; Bronze Age