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5. Horse teeth provide evidence of ancient DNApreservation in Sungir and a snapshot of mtDNA diversity

Horse teeth provide evidence of ancient DNApreservation in Sungir and a snapshot of mtDNA diversity

Ovchinnikov I.V. (1), Götherström A. (2), Eriksson T. (3), Kholina O.I. (4), Angerbjörn A. (5), Goodwin W. (6), Lidеn K. (7)

1) Department of Biology and Forensic Science Program, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, USA; 2) Evolutionary Biology Center, Uppsala University, Sweden; 3) Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden; 4) Grand Forks, USA; 5) Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; 6) Department of Forensic and Investigative Science, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK; 7) Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Ovchinnikov Igor V.: e-mail: igor.ovtchinnikov@email.und.edu; Götherström Anders: e-mail: anders.gotherstrom@ebc.uu.se; Eriksson Torsten.: e-mail: torsten@bergianska.se; Kholina Olga I.: e-mail: olgaov@hotmail.com; Angerbjörn Anders: e-mail: anders.angerbjorn@zoologi.su.se; Goodwin William: e-mail: WHGoodwin@uclan.ac.uk; Liden Kerstin: e-mail: kerstin.liden@arklab.su.se.

Abstract

DNA was isolated from three horse teeth found in the most recent cultural level in the Sungir burial site. One tooth was radiocarbon dated to 18,255±310 years before present (Ua-14511). Fragments of the horse mtDNA hypervariable segment I (HVS-I) were amplified from all horse teeth. The Sungir sequences cluster with the modern horse haplogroups L, K, and B as well as with the Late Pleistocene horse mtDNAs from Northeast Siberia and Central Europe. The nucleotide diversity, pairwise difference, and qp values demonstrated that Sungir horses had higher diversity than other Late Pleistocene and modern horses. Our analysis proved that DNA is at least survived in some remains found in Sungir. These data along with the proximity of Sungir to the Pontic-Caspian steppeland favor the model of horse domestication in this limited geographic region.

Keywords

Sungir, horse teeth, mitochondrial DNA

Цит.: Ovchinnikov I.V., Götherström A., Eriksson T., Kholina O.I., Angerbjörn A., Goodwin W., Lidеn K. Horse teeth provide evidence of ancient DNApreservation in Sungir and a snapshot of mtDNA diversity // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 2/2014; с. 10-17