China finishes sequencing Genghis Khan descendant's genome

Beijing, Dec 18 (IANS) China said Sunday that it has finished sequencing the genome of a direct descendant of Genghis Khan.

In 1206, a man known as Temujen was crowned Genghis Khan. His mounted Mongol army swept out of the steppes of Asia in an apocalyptic wave to conquer two-thirds of the known world, the Royal Alberta Museum said.

Zhou Huanmin, project leader and head of the biological research lab at the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, said Sunday that this was the first individual genome sequencing of a Mongolian, Xinhua reported.

The blood donator was a male only identified as one of Genghis Khan's 34th-generation offspring from the Sunit tribe, which is based in Inner Mongolia's Xilingol prefecture.

Zhou said the research team will continue to sequence the genomes of another 199 ethnic Mongolians and build a database consisting of Mongolian genetic codes.

Zhou said the results of the genome mapping are important for the detection of ethnicity-specific genome inheritances and the evolutionary features of Mongolians, and will also contribute to medical research linked to the control of certain diseases.

There are about 10 million ethnic Mongolians living around the world, mainly in China's Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous regions and Qinghai province, as well as Mongolia and Russia.