GRADIENT OF MITOCHONDRIAL GENOME DIVERSITY AMONG MONGOLOID POPULATIONS OF ASIA INFERRED FROM MTDNA HYPERVARIABLE REGION I VARIABILITY

The nucleotide sequences of hypervariable region I of the mtDNA contro l region from eleven Mongoloid populations of Siberia, Central and Eas tern Asia were analyzed by three independent methods. A gradient of ge netic diversity was discovered, declining from the Asian South-West to the North-East regions. The maximum values of long-term nucleotide di versity E(v) and a unimodal distribution of the pairwise nucleotide di fferences were registered in the populations of Central and Eastern As ia (China,Mongolia, Korea). A decrease in the diversity within populat ions in the North-East direction was accompanied by a multimodal distr ibution of nucleotide differences. Such a gradient of genetic diversit y in the Mongoloid populations of Asia, taken together with the result s of phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA sequences, is in accord with the h ypothesis according to which Central/Eastern Asia has been the primary origin of the Mongoloid race,