# Population Genetics > Paleogenetics > Paleolithic & Mesolithic >  Partial ancient mtDna from the Jomon people of Japan

## Angela

See:
http://www.nature.com/jhg/journal/va...g2016110a.html

"*The Jomon period of the Japanese Archipelago, characterized by cord-marked ‘jomon’ potteries, has yielded abundant human skeletal remains. However, the genetic origins of the Jomon people and their relationships with modern populations have not been clarified. We determined a total of 115 million base pair nuclear genome sequences from two Jomon individuals (male and female each) from the Sanganji Shell Mound (dated 3000 years before present) with the Jomon-characteristic mitochondrial DNA haplogroup N9b, and compared these nuclear genome sequences with those of worldwide populations. We found that the Jomon population lineage is best considered to have diverged before diversification of present-day East Eurasian populations, with no evidence of gene flow events between the Jomon and other continental populations. This suggests that the Sanganji Jomon people descended from an early phase of population dispersals in East Asia. We also estimated that the modern mainland Japanese inherited <20**%** of Jomon peoples’ genomes. Our findings, based on the first analysis of Jomon nuclear genome sequence data, firmly demonstrate that the modern mainland Japanese resulted from genetic admixture of the indigenous Jomon people and later migrants."

So, they're saying they diverged before the East Asian groups diverged from one another, and they were probably the first to reach Japan, yes? That would make them the equivalent of the WHG for Japan?

They're putting a 20% total on Jomon ancestry.

Apparently then the distinctive eye shape and other phenotypic traits came with the later migrants.*

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## LeBrok

There goes another myth of purity of Japanese "race" into the dumpster. Again we see extensive mixing of populations.

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## Maciamo

> There goes another myth of purity of Japanese "race" into the dumpster. Again we see extensive mixing of populations.


That was not really a myth any more. The Yayoi colonisation of Japan from 300 BCE, which brought agriculture, horses as well as bronze and iron metallurgy from Korea and China, is well documented archaeologically. I wrote an article on the origins of the Japanese 14 years ago, which I edited to add the population genetics section 5 years ago. I explained which Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups are of probable Yayoi (Iron Age) vs Jomon (Mesolithic). 

The mt-haplogroup N9b identified by this study was one of those I identified as being of Jomon origin (not that there could be any doubt about it considering its near absence outside Japan). Another study (Adachi 2008) had already tested many Jomon mtDNA sequences and also found N9b to be the dominant maternal lineage.

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## bicicleur

no big surprises

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## Gurka atla

> That was not really a myth any more. The Yayoi colonisation of Japan from 300 BCE, which brought agriculture, horses as well as bronze and iron metallurgy from Korea and China, is well documented archaeologically. I wrote an article on the origins of the Japanese 14 years ago, which I edited to add the population genetics section 5 years ago. I explained which Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups are of probable Yayoi (Iron Age) vs Jomon (Mesolithic). 
> 
> The mt-haplogroup N9b identified by this study was one of those I identified as being of Jomon origin (not that there could be any doubt about it considering its near absence outside Japan). Another study (Adachi 2008) had already tested many Jomon mtDNA sequences and also found N9b to be the dominant maternal lineage.


N9b and M7a is the most predominate and found in all 3 Jomon groups sampled

M7a

1) 7.9%
2) 36.9%
3) 4.5%

N9b

1) 65%
2) 59.1%
3) 12%

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## Gurka atla

> That was not really a myth any more. The Yayoi colonisation of Japan from 300 BCE, which brought agriculture, horses as well as bronze and iron metallurgy from Korea and China, is well documented archaeologically. I wrote an article on the origins of the Japanese 14 years ago, which I edited to add the population genetics section 5 years ago. I explained which Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups are of probable Yayoi (Iron Age) vs Jomon (Mesolithic). 
> 
> The mt-haplogroup N9b identified by this study was one of those I identified as being of Jomon origin (not that there could be any doubt about it considering its near absence outside Japan). Another study (Adachi 2008) had already tested many Jomon mtDNA sequences and also found N9b to be the dominant maternal lineage.



The most dominant haplogroup mtDNA of Jomon is N9b and M7a. However it seems Jomon from the South is dominated by M7a while Jomon from North is dominated by N9b.




Actually it's actually suggesting Jomon DNA is less than <20%, carrying 13% to 21%. However some studies even show only 2-5%.



It shows Okinawan, Japanese being distant from Ainu.




But it also shows Japanese, Okinawan, Ainu are distant from Jomon

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