Mitochondrial DNA analysis of ancient human bones excavated from Nukdo island, S.Korea

We have performed analyses using ancient DNA extracted from 25 excavated human bones, estimating around the 1st century B.C. Ancient human bones were obtained from Nukdo Island, which is located off of the Korean peninsula of East Asia. We made concerted efforts to extract ancient DNA of high quality and to obtain reproducible PCR products, as this was a primary consideration for this extensive kind of undertaking. We performed PCR amplifications for several regions of the mitochondrial DNA, and could determine mitochondrial haplogroups for 21 ancient DNA samples. Genetic information from mitochondrial DNA belonged to super-haplogroup M, haplogroup D or its sub-haplogroups (D4 or D4b), which are distinctively found in East Asians, including Koreans or Japanese. The dendrogram and principal component analysis based on haplogroup frequencies revealed that the Nukdo population was close to those of the East Asians and clearly distinguished from populations shown in the other regions. Considering that Nukdo is geologically isolated in the southern part of the Korean peninsula and is a site of commercial importance with neighboring countries, these results may reflect genetic continuity for the habitation and migration of ethnic groups who had lived in a particular area in the past. Therefore, we suggest that phylogenetic analyses of ancient DNA have significant advantages for clarifying the origins and migrations of ethnic groups, or human races.