The mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of the Slavonic peoples

4300 mitochondrial DNA lineages of three Slavonic-speakers - southern (Slovenians, Croatians, and Bosnians), western (Slovaks, Czechs, Poles), and eastern Slavs (Ukrainians and Russians) - were identified by HVS sequencing and RLFP analysis. In the context of available for us additional 18, 000 mtDNAs from elswhere a vast majority of "Slavonic" haplotypes belong to a common, likely largely early Upper Palaelolithic western-Eurasian pool of maternal lineages. The distribution of a different haplogroups in extant European populations, including Slavs, appears to be profoundly influenced by the recolonization processes after Last Glacial Maximum. The fraction of mitochondrial lineages shared with those found in Near East is relatively low ; the presence of eastern and southern Mediterranean lineages are limited as well. However, many more recent haplotypes are shared between western and southern Slavs with Germanic and western Finno-Ugric speakers. Eastern Slavs share more lineages with non-Slavic eastern Europeans.