Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA from the Ancient Tombs of Turfan

MtDNA was successfully extracted from ten individual bones (femurs) in the tombs of ancient Jushi in Turfan basin, dated back to the year about 3 000-2 500 years ago. By means of four overlapping primers, we got nucleotide sequence of the 218bp length. Ancient mtDNA was analyzed by the sequencing of hypervariable region Ⅰ of the mtDNA control region. The result shows that 9 haplotypes with 24 polymorphic sites were obtained. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that Mongolians and Altai are the population genetically closest to the Jushi groups and Jushi mtDNA pool being an admixture of eastern Asian and European lineages. So our preliminary data imply that an ancient mingling of Euro-Asian population had existed in Turfan basin prior to the early Iron Age.