Siberian population of the New Stone Age: mtDNA haplotype diversity in the ancient population from the Ust'-Ida I burial ground, dated 4020-3210 BC by 14C.

On the basis of analysis of mtDNA from skeletal remains, dated by 14C 4020-3210 BC, from the Ust'-Ida I Neolithic burial ground in Cis-Baikal area of Siberia, we obtained genetic characteristics of the ancient Mongoloid population. Using the 7 restriction enzymes for the analysis of site's polymorphism in 16,106-16,545 region of mtDNA, we studied the structure of the most frequent DNA haplotypes, and estimated the intrapopulational nucleotide diversity of the Neolithic population. Comparison of the Neolithic and modern indigeneous populations from Siberia, Mongolia and Ural showed, that the ancient Siberian population is one of the ancestors of the modern population of Siberia. From genetic distance, in the assumption of constant nucleotide substitution rate, we estimated the divergence time between the Neolithic and the modern Siberian population. This divergence time (5572 years ago) is conformed to the age of skeletal remains (5542-5652 years). With use of the 14C dates of the skeletal remains, nucleotide substitution rate in mtDNA was estimated as 1% sequence divergence for 8938-9115 years.