9414900 Wallace, Douglas The utility of using mitochondrial DNA variation to assess genetic variation in human populations and to reconstruct human migration patterns has been demonstrated by many studies, going back to the well-known "Eve" hypothesis. For this reason, recent investigations of human origins in the New World and Asia have used mtDNA variation to trace genetic links between populations in these regions. While it is clear that New World populations are derived from northern Asian populations, it is not so clear how many migrations there were into the New World, and from how many source populations (variously argued as one, three, or even four separate migrations). Analysis of northern Asian populations is required to address these issues. This project to collect and analyze samples from Siberian populations is timely and will provide critical information for further investigation of these issues. The graduate student has previous field experience in this area, and has established the groundwork for collecting the samples, is well versed in the analytic techniques, and has alrealy co- authored important papers in this area. The project will return important and intersting information. ***
