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Mitogenomics of the Koryaks and Evens of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk

Journal of Human Genetics volume 68, pages 705–712 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Due to the geographical proximity of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka Peninsula to the Beringia, the indigenous populations of these territories are of great interest for elucidating the human settlement history of northern Asia and America. Meanwhile, there is a clear shortage of genetic studies of the indigenous populations of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. Here, in order to examine their fine-scale matrilineal genetic structure, ancestry and relationships with neighboring populations, we analyzed 203 complete mitogenomes (174 of which are new) from population samples of the Koryaks and Evens of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Chukchi of the extreme northeast Asia. The patterns observed underscore the reduced level of genetic diversity found in the Koryak, Even, and Chukchi populations, which, along with the high degree of interpopulation differentiation, may be the result of genetic drift. Our phylogeographic analysis reveals common Paleo-Asiatic ancestry for 51.1% of the Koryaks and 17.8% of the Evens. About third of the mitogenomes found in the Koryaks and Evens might be considered as ethno-specific, as these are virtually absent elsewhere in North, Central and East Asia. Coalescence ages of most of these lineages coincide well with the emergence and development of the Tokarev and Old Koryak archaeological cultures associated with the formation of the Koryaks, as well as with the period of separation and split of the North Tungusic groups migrated northwards from the Lake Baikal or the Amur River area.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the donors for providing samples for this project. The study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation № 22-24-00264, https://rscf.ru/project/22-24-00264/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Russian Academy of Sciences, Portovaya Street, 18, Magadan, 685000, Russia

    Miroslava Derenko, Galina Denisova, Andrey Litvinov, Irina Dambueva & Boris Malyarchuk

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  1. Miroslava Derenko
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  2. Galina Denisova
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  3. Andrey Litvinov
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Correspondence to Miroslava Derenko.

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Supplementary information

10038_2023_1173_MOESM1_ESM.xlsx

Population origin, haplogroup affiliation, specificity and putative origin of complete mtDNA samples used in the present study. Established haplogroup labels are shown in black

10038_2023_1173_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Maps of Russia (insert) and the Magadan Oblast, showing the approximate locations of the settlements where samples were collected from the Koryaks, Evens and Chukchi analyzed in this study

Maximum-parsimony phylogenetic trees of complete mtDNAs of haplogroups found in Koryak, Even abd Chukchi populations

MDS plot based on Fst values calculated from complete mitogenome sequences for ethnic groups of North Asia

10038_2023_1173_MOESM5_ESM.xlsx

Diversity indices and neutrality test values for populations of North, East and Central Asia based on complete mitogenome data

Pairwise Fst values between North, East and Central Asian populations

10038_2023_1173_MOESM7_ESM.xlsx

Frequencies of shared haplotypes between the Chukchi, Koryaks, Evens, presented in this paper, and other populations of North, East and Central Asia

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Derenko, M., Denisova, G., Litvinov, A. et al. Mitogenomics of the Koryaks and Evens of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. J Hum Genet 68, 705–712 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s10038-023-01173-x

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