Mongolians in the Genetic Landscape of Central Asia: Exploring the Genetic Relations among Mongolians and Other World Populations

Genetic data on North Central Asian populations are underrepresented in the literature, especially autosomal markers. In the present study we use 812 single nucleotide polymorphisms that are distributed across all the human autosomes and that have been extensively studied at Yale to examine the affinities of two recently collected, samples of populations: rural and cosmopolitan Mongolians from Ulaanbaatar and nomadic, Turkic-speaking Tsaatan from Mongolia near the Siberian border. We compare these two populations to one another and to a global set of populations and discuss their relationships to New World populations. Specifically, we analyze data on 521 autosomal loci (single SNPs and multi-SNP haplotypes) studied on 57 populations representing all the major geographical regions of the world. We conclude that the North Central Asian populations we study are genetically distinct from all other populations in our study and may be close to the ancestral lineage leading to the New World populations

Mongolian Part of the Transboundary Sailugem Natural Plague Focus in 2017. Communication 1. Epizootic condition

Objective – estimation of current epizootic condition of Mongolian part of transboundary Sailugem natural plague focus. Materials and methods. Epizootiological survey was performed for the area of 2335 km2, 277 mammals and 516 ectoparasites were investigated for plague. Results and conclusions. Eight Yersinia pestis subsp. pestis strains were isolated, including 7 strains – from grey marmots (6 – from the remains of meals of predatory birds, 1 from a corpse) and 1 – from long-tailed souslik (corpse). Y. pestis DNA was detected in 52 objects. Serological samples showed 40 positive results. Epizootic manifestations, confirmed by isolation of Y. pestis cultures, detection of plague microbe DNA, and positive serological results, were observed across the area of 1611 km2 covering 69 % of the inspected territory. Epizootic results indicated high infection rate of mass mammal species and first of all grey marmots. The data demonstrated that the extended plague epizooty caused by Y. pestis of the main subspecies occurred in the inspected territory in the carrier settlements. For the first time the circulation of Y. pestis subsp. pestis was registered in the Mongolian part of the transboundary Sailugem focus

An approach to building Field Epidemiology Training Programme (FETP) trainees’ capacities as educators

Field Epidemiology Training Programmes (FETPs), which are modelled after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemic Intelligence Service programme, began in 1980 and have produced graduates in more than 70 countries, including 12 in the Western Pacific Region.1,2 These programmes aim to “build sustainable capacity for detecting and responding to public health threats” and “develop expertise so that disease outbreaks can be detected locally and prevented from spreading”.3 FETPs thus include training in applied epidemiology and public health services. FETP trainees and graduates, however, often have additional responsibilities: mentoring newer trainees, supervising in the field, leading short training courses, facilitating meetings, etc. Programmes therefore must provide trainees with the knowledge and skills to fulfil these responsibilities

North Asian population relationships in a global context

Population genetic studies of North Asian ethnic groups have focused on genetic variation of sex chromosomes and mitochondria. Studies of the extensive variation available from autosomal variation have appeared infrequently. We focus on relationships among population samples using new North Asia microhaplotype data. We combined genotypes from our laboratory on 58 microhaplotypes, distributed across 18 autosomes, on 3945 individuals from 75 populations with corresponding data extracted for 26 populations from the Thousand Genomes consortium and for 22 populations from the GenomeAsia 100 K project. A total of 7107 individuals in 122 total populations are analyzed using STRUCTURE, Principal Component Analysis, and phylogenetic tree analyses. North Asia populations sampled in Mongolia include: Buryats, Mongolians, Altai Kazakhs, and Tsaatans. Available Siberians include samples of Yakut, Khanty, and Komi Zyriane. Analyses of all 122 populations confirm many known relationships and show that most populations from North Asia form a cluster distinct from all other groups. Refinement of analyses on smaller subsets of populations reinforces the distinctiveness of North Asia and shows that the North Asia cluster identifies a region that is ancestral to Native Americans

In-house Production Method for DNA Ladders to Determine Nucleotide Fragment Sizes up to 1500 Base Pairs

The human genome project was recently completed after running for 15 years and revealed the presence of 30,000 genes in the human genome with a total nucleotide length of 3.2 billion base pairs (bp). Many novel methods and techniques have been developed in the field of molecular biology and molecular genetics as a result of intensive research, where basic analysis is impossible without the use of DNA size markers or DNA ladders. This research aimed to establish an in-house method to produce DNA size markers detecting up to 1500 bp size. DNA size markers are commonly used consumables in molecular biology laboratories. In this study, we report preparation of a DNA size marker consisting of 12 fragments from 100 to 1500 bp. DNA fragments were amplified by PCR and PCR products were then ligated in the cloning vector pDYNE TA V2. Our procedure for DNA size marker production could be simple, time saving, and inexpensive.nbs

Ancestry inference of 96 population samples using microhaplotypes

Microhaplotypes have become a new type of forensic marker with a great ability to identify and deconvolute mixtures because massively parallel sequencing (MPS) allows the alleles (haplotypes) of the multi-SNP loci to be determined directly for an individual. As originally defined, a microhaplotype locus is a short segment of DNA with two or more SNPs defining three or more haplotypes. The length is short enough, less than about 300 bp, that the read length of current MPS technology can produce a phase-known sequence of each chromosome of an individual. As part of the discovery phase of our studies, data on 130 microhaplotype loci with estimates of haplotype frequency data on 83 populations have been published. To provide a better picture of global allele frequency variation, we have now tested 13 more populations for 65 of the microhaplotype loci from among those with higher levels of inter-population gene frequency variation, including 8 loci not previously published. These loci provide clear distinctions among 6 biogeographic regions and provide some information distinguishing up to 10 clusters of populations

52 additional reference population samples for the 55 AISNP panel

Ancestry inference for a person using a panel of SNPs depends on the variation of frequencies of those SNPs around the world and the amount of reference data available for calculation/comparison. The Kidd Lab panel of 55 AISNPs has been incorporated in commercial kits by both Life Technologies and Illumina for massively parallel sequencing. Therefore, a larger set of reference populations will be useful for researchers using those kits. We have added reference population allele frequencies for 52 population samples to the 73 previously entered so that there are now allele frequencies publicly available in ALFRED and FROG-kb for a total of 125 population samples. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NCND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

52 additional reference population samples for the 55 AISNP panel

AbstractAncestry inference for a person using a panel of SNPs depends on the variation of frequencies of those SNPs around the world and the amount of reference data available for calculation/comparison. The Kidd Lab panel of 55 AISNPs has been incorporated in commercial kits by both Life Technologies and Illumina for massively parallel sequencing. Therefore, a larger set of reference populations will be useful for researchers using those kits. We have added reference population allele frequencies for 52 population samples to the 73 previously entered so that there are now allele frequencies publicly available in ALFRED and FROG-kb for a total of 125 population samples