Posted 29 December 2010 - 12:13 PM
I thought this is interesting. I'll post just the Abstract, Intro, and Final paragraphs, you guys can probably find the full article through your library. Its interesting as it implies that a substantial amount of the Yakuts (Sakhalar) ancestry, stems from Turkified Evenks (who speak a Northern Tungusic language and were the original inhabitants of Sakha). The elites being Turkics whose culture and language adopted by a Tungusic majority?
From:
Russian Journal of Genetics, Vol. 39, No. 7, 2003, pp. 816–822. Translated from Genetika, Vol. 39, No. 7, 2003, pp. 975–981.
Original Russian Text Copyright © 2003 by V. Puzyrev, Stepanov, Golubenko, K. Puzyrev, Maximova, Kharkov, Spiridonova, Nogovitsina.
MtDNA and Y-Chromosome Lineages
in the Yakut Population
Abstract—The structure of female (mtDNA) and male (Y-chromosome haplotypes) lineages in the Yakut population
was examined. To determine mtDNA haplotypes, sequencing of hypervariable segment I and typing of
haplotype-specific point substitutions in the other parts of the mtDNA molecule were performed. Y haplogroups
were identified through typing of biallelic polymorphisms in the nonrecombining part of the chromosome. Haplotypes
within haplogroups were analyzed with seven microsatellite loci. Mitochondrial gene pool of Yakuts is
mainly represented by the lineages of eastern Eurasian origin (haplogroups A, B, C, D, G, and F). In Yakuts
haplogroups C and D showing the total frequency of almost 80% and consisting of 12 and 10 different haplopypes,
respectively, were the most frequent and diverse. The total part of the lineages of western Eurasian origin
(“Caucasoid”) was about 6% (4 haplotypes, haplogroups H, J, and U). Most of Y chromosomes in the Yakut
population (87%) belonged to haplogroup N3 (HG16), delineated by the T–C substitution at the Tat locus.
Chromosomes of haplogroup N3 displayed the presence of 19 microsatellite haplotypes, the most frequent of
which encompassed 54% chromosomes of this haplogroup. Median network of haplogroup N3 in Yakuts demonstrated
distinct “starlike phylogeny”. Male lineages of Yakuts were shown to be closest to those of Eastern
Evenks.
INTRODUCTION
Ethnogenomics, which is aimed at analysis of
genomic diversity in human populations and ethnic
groups, is today one of the most promising and thriving
trends of the genome research. The greatest advances in
this field are associated with analysis of the distribution
of haploid lineages transmitted either maternally
(mtDNA), or paternally (Y chromosome). Analysis of
the mtDNA and Y-chromosome lineage distribution
provided a preliminary reconstruction of the origin and
global peopling pattern of modern humans [1–3]. However,
some problems of the developmental history and
the structure of regional gene pools, including those of
Siberian ethnic populations, remain unclear. This also
concerns the gene pool of the Yakut ethnic group,
which was examined in the present study.
Yakuts (Sakha) belong to the Central Asian anthropological
type of Mongoloid race and speak the language
of the Turkic group of the Altaic linguistic family.
Total population number of Yakuts is about 380 000
[4]. During the late Paleolith and Neolith, the territory
of contemporary Yakutia was inhabited by tribes of
hunters and gatherers, assimilated later by the ancestors
of the Tunguso-Manchurian Evenks, Evens, as well as
by the ancestors of some other ethnic groups. The history
of the Yakut ethnogeny started only at the advent of
the 2nd millennium A.D., when the Turkic-speaking
tribes of cattle-breeders, pressed by more progressive
pro-Buryat tribes, moved from the south (probably,
from the cis-Baikal region) to the middle Lena basin,
absorbing local Paleo-Asian and Tungus-speaking
tribes [5–7]. The first wave of Turkic-speaking
migrants reached the middle Lena, as well as the lower
Vilyui and Aldan, as early as in the 13th century, while
the following groups of southern migrants were moving
to Yakutia till the beginning of the 15th century. By the
advent of the 17th century, Yakuts were widely distributed
along the basins of the large rivers (Lena, Yana,
and Indigirka), assimilating small ethnic groups inhabiting
these regions [5, 7]. In some cases, admixture with
Tungus-speaking groups resulted in the formation of
specific ethnographic groups, like for example, reindeer
breeders from the northwestern Yakutia, which
arose as the result of the admixture between the Yakuts
from the lower Lena and Evenks [7]. Despite the distinct
predominance of the Turkic language and material
culture introduced by southern migrants, the contribution
of the migrants and local populations to the gene
pool of modern Yakuts remains unclear.
In this study, we report the distribution of the
mtDNA and Y-chromosome haplogroups and haplotypes
among Yakuts and analyze it in the context of the
data on the gene pool of Eurasian population.
--
In addition to Yakuts, haplogroup N3 (HG16) was
also widely distributed among other Siberian ethnic
groups, Evenks, Buryats, and Tuvinians [14]. The
HG16 haplotype spectrum of Yakuts was most close to
that of Eastern Evenks. The Yakut founder haplotype
differs from the Evenk prevalent microsatellite haplotype
N3 (HG16) only by one two-step mutation at the
DYS389II locus. At the same time, the putative founder
N3 (HG16) haplotypes in Buryats and Tuvinians are
distanced from the Yakut haplotype 2 by four or five
mutation steps, like predominant microsatellite haplotypes
in Finno-Ugric populations of northern Europe,
where N3 (HG16) is the major haplogroup [13]. Yakuts
and Eastern Evenks are generally characterized by narrow,
almost overlapping spectra of the N3 (HG16) haplotypes
differing in these two ethnic groups only by
their frequencies.
The distribution patterns of Y-chromosome haplotypes
in Yakuts along with their close relatedness with
the Evenk Y-chromosome lineages suggests that the
male gene pool of the Yakut population arose on the
basis of local (non-Turkic) component. The Turkic language
was, probably, acquired as a result of cultural
dominance of the Turkic-speaking elite, which did not
make a considerable contribution to the Y-chromosome
gene pool (language replacement according to the elite
dominance principle).
