Structure and Forming of Mitochondrial Gene Pool of Russian Population of Eastern Europe

Abstract

Phylogeographic analysis of the variability of whole mitochondrial genomes in the Russian populations of Eastern Europe (n = 557) showed that, in the Russian mitochondrial gene pool, there were subgroups of mtDNA characteristic only of Russians and other Eastern Slavs (11.7%), as well as of Slavs as a whole (12.2%), Slavs and Germans (6.6%), and Slavs and Baltic Finns (5.7%). The results of molecular dating suggest that the mitochondrial subgroups characteristic of Russians and Slavs in general began to arise 2700–3500 years ago. The results of the study of the dynamics of the effective population size based on the Bayesian analysis of data on the variability of mtDNA haplotypes specific to Russians and Slavs showed that a rapid increase in population sizes occurred immediately after its decline 4000–5000 years ago. The data obtained are discussed in comparison with the results of the analysis of Y-chromosome polymorphism in European populations.