A Phylogenetic Analysis of Human Mitochondrial DNA Data

Abstract

Phylogenetic relationship of human mitochondrial DNA types were analyzed for 885 individuals from 15 different populations by surveying published data. All the individuals were classified into 57 mitochondrial DNA types by combining the digestion patterns (morphs) of four restriction enzymes (Avail, BamHI, HpaI, and Mspl). The phylogenetic relationship of these mtDNA types were reconstructed by applying the maximum parsimony method. Genetic distances between populations were computed and the phylogenetic tree of populations were reconstructed by using UPGMA. Most of the Mongoloid populations including Japanese, Ainu, Korean, and Amerindian were closely related, and the genetic affinity between these Mongoloid populations and the Caucasoid populations were relatively high, compared to the African populations.