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Most of the recent new knowledge in the field of human population genetics have arisen from the analysis of the global variation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosomes variation. Permanent ongoing improvement of the topology of phylogenetic trees of those haploid genomes together with the growing knowledge about the phylogeography of their variation allows to analyse the spatial and temporal aspects of the origin of specific lineages of genes and to reconstruct the demographic history of our species. The aim of this project is to understand the phylogenesis of the variants of haploid genomes spread among Estonians and among the populations of the Baltic Sea region in general in a context of the genetic variation of Eurasian populations. The project is based on our extensive knowledge about the phylogenesis of haploid genomes of Eurasian and African populations. Experimental part involves the detailed analysis of mtDNA coding region and control region polymorphisms, including full-genome resequencing, and hierarchical analysis of Y chromosome SNPs combined with analysis of STR length polymorphism. Reconstruction of phylogenetic trees by the use of median network approach, basic methods of population genetics, the coalescence theory and molecular clock will be used as an analytical basis of the project. As an outcome, we wish to reconstruct the time and direction of gene flows that have shaped the present variation of the maternal and paternal lineages of Estonians and our neighbours. Depending on other projects, we would attempt to associate these results with the knowledge about the variation of autosomal genes of Estonian |