Mitochondrial DNA analysis of ancient human bones excavated from Nukdo island, S.Korea

Abstract

We have performed analyses using ancient DNA extracted from 25 excavated human bones, estimating around the 1 st century B.C. Ancient human bones were obtained from Nukdo Island, which is located off of the Korean peninsula of East Asia. We made concerted efforts to extract ancient DNA of high quality and to obtain reproducible PCR products, as this was a primary consideration for this extensive kind of undertaking. We performed PCR amplifications for several regions of the mitochondrial DNA, and could determine mitochondrial haplogroups for 21 ancient DNA samples. Genetic information from mitochondrial DNA belonged to super-haplogroup M, haplogroup D or its sub-haplogroups (D4 or D4b), which are distinctively found in East Asians, including Koreans or Japanese. The dendrogram and principal component analysis based on haplogroup frequencies revealed that the Nukdo population was close to those of the East Asians and clearly distinguished from populations shown in the other regions. Considering that Nukdo is geologically isolated in the southern part of the Korean peninsula and is a site of commercial importance with neighboring countries, these results may reflect genetic continuity for the habitation and migration of ethnic groups who had lived in a particular area in the past. Therefore, we suggest that phylogenetic analyses of ancient DNA have significant advantages for clarifying the origins and migrations of ethnic groups, or human races. [BMB reports 2010; 43(2): 133-139]

Japan considered from the hypothesis of farmer/language spread

“…One mtDNA haplogroup found in many Jōmon-associated individuals (e.g. Kanzawa-Kiriyama et al, 2013 ; Adachi et al, 2011 ; Kim et al, 2010 ) as well as Yayoi-associated individuals (Igawa et al, 2009 ) is D4, which is widespread in northern East Asia both in past and present-day populations (e.g. Tanaka et al, 2004 ; Zhao et al, 2010 ; Hong et al, 2014 ; Jeong et al, 2018 ; Lan et al, 2019 ).…”

The Impact of Peroxisomes on Cellular Aging and Death

“…In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe it was shown that Pmp20p (in addition to thioredoxin peroxidase and glutathione peroxidase) inhibited thermal aggregation of citrate synthase at a high temperature (43°C) in vitro . This suggests that at least in S. pombe peroxisomal Pmp20p may have a second function as a molecular chaperone which could be important for organelle quality control (Kim et al, 2010). …”

Molecular Genealogy of a Mongol Queen’s Family and Her Possible Kinship with Genghis Khan

“…To define haplogroup affiliations, the D-loop HVR1 (positions 15,977–16,399), HVR2 (positions 29–381), and 10 coding regions of mtDNA were amplified by using primer sets presented in S5 Table and sequenced [ 18 , 23 , 66 ]. The primer set used to amplify the coding region containing SNPs for mtDNA haplogroup M was also used to determine the mtDNA haplogroups N and Z; an amplicon produced by the primer set for haplogroup M contained SNP sites for haplogroups N and Z, as well as for M. In addition, the coding region containing SNPs for the mtDNA haplogroups CZ and G was simultaneously amplified by a primer set for CZ.…”