*2.2. MtDNA Analysis*

Whole peripheral blood samples were collected from the donors in 10 mL Vacutech EDTA tubes. Total DNA was extracted from a buffy-coa<sup>t</sup> layer using the SileksMagNA-G Blood DNA Isolation kit, according to the manufacturer's protocols. The complete sequencing procedure entailed PCR amplification of 22 overlapping mtDNA templates [24], which were sequenced in both directions with BigDye 3.1 terminator chemistry (PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, United States). The trace files were analyzed with Sequencher (version 4.5 GeneCode Corporation) software. To perform capillary electrophoresis on an ABI Prism 3130XL DNA Analyzer, we used core facilities of the "Genomika" Sequencing Center (SBRAS, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Variants were scored relative to the Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence, RSRS [25]. MtDNA haplotypes were identified following the nomenclature suggested by the PhyloTree Build 17 [26]. Forty-two mitochondrial genomes obtained through this study were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers MN413201–MN413242. Two genomes, EU807741.1 and EU807742.1, had been deposited to the GenBank earlier [21].
