Maternal genomic legacy of Altaic-speaking populations reveals broad Eurasian maternal lineage diversity with a northern East Asian connection.

Manchu and Mongolian populations show stronger maternal affinity with northern East Asians, while Kazakhs carry higher proportions of western and northern Eurasian mtDNA lineages.

• Why it matters: Altaic-speaking groups span Eurasia, but their maternally inherited mtDNA data are limited, leaving gaps in how maternal lineages vary geographically and historically.
• What they did: The study built a comparative mtDNA dataset of 58,257 modern and 7,425 ancient individuals, using high-quality mtDNA SNP variation from large-scale array studies of representative Altaic groups.
• The result: Maternal haplogroup composition varies across Altaic-speaking populations and aligns with ancient mtDNA patterns linked to hunter-gathering, pastoralism, and farming across northern East Asia, Siberia, and western Eurasia.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.