Molecular analyses of human skeletons found in Balıkesir/Antandros Ancient City excavation

Recently, studies focused on ancient DNA (aDNA) has become crucial in the field of evolutionary biology. Particularly, the interest in aDNA studies that shed light on the history of the ancient human population in Turkey has been drastically increased in the last five years. In this study, tooth samples were taken from the necropolis of Balıkesir/Antandros ancient city and aDNA isolation was performed for 6 different ancient humans. Touchdown PCR was performed for hypervariable regions, HV1, HV2 and HV3 of mitochondrial DNA using 32 primer pairs and Sanger sequencing was performed. The haplogroups were identified by using bioinformatic tools. The findings of this study will contribute to the ongoing aDNA research in Turkey and were compared with haplogroups of two modern-day individuals. Moreover, due to its multidisciplinary aspect, the findings will also support the long-standing archaeological research in the area by providing molecular data and will be a great starting point for further studies.