Genetic studies of the remains of prehistoric hunter-gatherers in the lake Baikal, has revealed their relationship not only with other inhabitants of Eurasia, but with the first Americans. The results were published in the journal Cell.
People lived on the shores of lake Baikal since the upper Paleolithic and left behind a rich archaeological evidence.
In a new article of German scientists from the Department archaeogenetic Institute of science about the human history of the max Planck reported 19 sequencing of human genomes from the area of lake Baikal, including one of the most ancient, was in the region.
Using fragments of the tooth, which was found in 1962 during excavations at the site Ust-Kyakhta-3, scientists using advanced molecular biology techniques recovered the genome of a man who lived here 14 thousand years ago. In its genome, was discovered signs of the Siberian and the American populations. Thus, it is the oldest known to date, a carrier of genes of native Americans.
"This study shows the deep connection between the upper Paleolithic Siberians and the first Americans — are in the press release of the max Planck Institute of words of the first author of the study Hye Yu (He Yu). — We believe that this can shed light on the history of native Americans".
The results of the study also indicate that the people of the bronze age had an active relationship with other peoples of Eurasia. This is indicated by numerous insertions in the genome of Ust-Kyakhta-3. This man, along with evidence of Mesolithic origin in North-Eastern Siberia, has a more ancient genetic link with the North Eurasian and East Asian, and Eastern European steppe ancestors. All of this suggests wide contacts South Siberian and West Eurasian steppe populations in the early bronze age.
Data from other genomes from the Baikal region suggests that this population experienced frequent genetic contact with North-Eurasian peoples, which led to the emergence of various mixed types.
To some extent, this genetic complexity is inherited and the first Americans, among whose ancestors, in addition to Asians, obviously, were representatives of the North-Eurasian peoples.
On the wide contacts of the peoples of southern Siberia during the bronze age tells and the discovery of the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis, made by the authors of the study. Two individuals who are genetically related to North-East Asian type was identified this pathogen, originating from the steppe zone, from outside of the region. Moreover, the strain of Yersinia pestis, discovered by scientists are similar to modern pathogen from the region of the Baltic sea in northeast Europe.
"This is the East the emergence of ancient Y. pestis strains suggests traveling long distances to people in the bronze age", says another study author Maria spyrou (Spyrou, Maria).
In the future the authors plan to devote a separate study to the nature of the spread of the plague in the beginning of the bronze age, when Eurasia was formed interregional relations and cultural interaction, as well as to continue to collect genetic data to better understand how the gene pool was formed the first native Americans.
