Department of the Diversity and Evolution of Genomes, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia.
Department of Archaeology, Ethnography and Museology, Altai State University, 656049 Barnaul, Russia.
Genes (Basel). 2021 Mar 12;12(3):412. doi: 10.3390/genes12030412.
The Mongolian horse is one of the most ancient and relatively unmanaged horse breeds. The population history of the Mongolian horse remains poorly understood due to a lack of information on ancient and modern DNA. Here, we report nearly complete mitochondrial genome data obtained from five ancient Mongolian horse samples of the Khereksur and Deer Stone culture (late 2nd to 1st third of the 1st millennium BC) and one ancient horse specimen from the Xiongnu culture (1st century BC to 1st century AD) using target enrichment and high-throughput sequencing methods. Phylogenetic analysis involving ancient, historical, and modern mitogenomes of horses from Mongolia and other regions showed the presence of three mitochondrial haplogroups in the ancient Mongolian horse populations studied here and similar haplotype composition of ancient and modern horse populations of Mongolia. Our results revealed genetic continuity between the Mongolian horse populations of the Khereksur and Deer Stone culture and those of the Xiongnu culture owing to the presence of related mitotypes. Besides, we report close phylogenetic relationships between haplotypes of the Khereksur and Deer Stone horses and the horses of indigenous breeds of the Middle East (Caspian and Iranian), China (Naqu, Yunnan, and Jinjiang), and Italy (Giara) as well as genetic similarity between the Xiongnu Mongolian horses and those of the most ancient breeds of the Middle East (Arabian) and Central Asia (Akhal-Teke). Despite all the migrations of the Mongolian peoples over the past 3000 years, mitochondrial haplogroup composition of Mongolian horse populations remains almost unchanged.
蒙古马是最古老和相对未被管理的马种之一。由于缺乏古代和现代 DNA 的信息，蒙古马的种群历史仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们使用靶向富集和高通量测序方法，从 Khereksur 和 Deer Stone 文化（公元前 2 世纪末至 1 世纪上半叶）的五个古代蒙古马样本和一个匈奴文化（公元前 1 世纪至公元 1 世纪）的古代马标本中获得了几乎完整的线粒体基因组数据。涉及蒙古和其他地区古代、历史和现代马线粒体基因组的系统发育分析表明，在所研究的古代蒙古马群体中存在三种线粒体单倍群，并且古代和现代马群体的单倍型组成相似。我们的研究结果揭示了由于相关的单倍型的存在，Khereksur 和 Deer Stone 文化的蒙古马种群与匈奴文化的蒙古马种群之间存在遗传连续性。此外，我们报告了 Khereksur 和 Deer Stone 马的单倍型与中东（里海和伊朗）、中国（云南和晋江）和意大利（Giara）的本地品种的马以及匈奴蒙古马与中东（阿拉伯）和中亚（阿克哈-特克）最古老品种的马之间的密切系统发育关系。尽管蒙古民族在过去 3000 年中经历了所有的迁徙，但蒙古马种群的线粒体单倍群组成几乎没有变化。
