[Genetic relationships between Tuva population and the neighboring populations in the Altai Region of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region]

In the Hanasi scenic spot of the Altai Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, there is a special population known as Xinjiang Tuvinians for short. These Tuvinians were classified as Mongolians in the early 1950s by the National Ethnic Affairs Commission of China, but they claimed that they have an independent origin. To resolve this dispute and their genetic relationships with the people in the neighboring regions, we randomly selected 150 male Tuvinians in the Altai Region. Fourteen Y chromosomal markers were genotyped and eleven haplogroups were constructed. The frequencies of the haplogroups K-M9 and Q-M242 were higher in Xinjiang Tuvinians or Tuvinians in the Tuva Republic than those in the other populations (e.g., Mongolians and Kazakh). Principal component analysis , multi-dimensional scaling analysis and further phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that the Xinjiang Tuvinians were far separated from Mongolians and Kazakh. Based on these results, we proposed that Xinjiang Tuvinians are genetically distinct from Mongolians and Kazakh.