Ethnic affinities of the ancient human Jety-Asar population by mitochondrial DNA analysis

An anthropological study of the remains has indicated uniformity of the ancient human Jety-Asar population (Central Asia) and suggests a mixed Euro-Mongoloid genesis. DNA was extracted from teeth from three Caucasoid skulls recovered from a burial site dated at approximately 2000 years ago. Ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was analysed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis for the A, B, C and D haplogroups and the sequencing of hypervariable region I of the mtDNA control region. The full set of mtDNA control region variants determined for Jety-Asar specimens was only found among a modern Mongolian population (Mongoloid people), indicating some discordance of molecular and morphological data.