HLA class I and class II alleles have been studied for the first time in the Turkish-speaking
Tuvinian population, which lives in Russia, North of Mongolia and close to the Altai mountains.
Comparisons have been done with about 11000 chromosomes from other worldwide populations, and
extended haplotypes, genetic distances, neighbor joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses
have been calculated. Tuvinians show an admixture of Mongoloid and Caucasoid characters, the
latter probably coming from the ancient Kyrgyz background or, less feasibly, more recent Russian
Caucasoid admixture. However, Siberian population traits are not found and thus Tuvinians are
closer to Central Asian populations. Siberians are more related to Na-Dene and Eskimo American
Indians; Amerindians (from nowadays Iberian–America) are not related to any other group,
including Pacific Islanders, Siberians or other American Indians. The ‘more than one wave’ model for
the peopling of the Americas is supported.