Major Research Projects of the Altai State University

Ancient Settlement in Siberia: Formation and Dynamics of Cultures in Northern Asia.

Project management: Anatoliy P. Derevyanko, Doctor of History, Full Members of Russian Academy of Sciences; Aleksey A. Tishkin, Doctor of History, Vice-rector for scientific and innovative development, Professor.

The project goal is seen in reconstructing the dynamics of settlement, ethno-cultural and social processes on the territory of the Northern Asia, in studying the directions of interactions within cultural-historical communities and the influence of migration on people and their culture in ancient times and the Middle Ages including formation of the modern humans in the Paleolithic.

Оbjectives:

  • The features of cultural adaptation to the natural conditions of the region, identification of regional and local features;
  • Identification of factors and components of the process of cultural genesis in the era of antiquity and the Middle Ages in Western Siberia;
  • Construction of chronostratigraphy and periodization of the ancient cultures of the Bronze Age in the region;
  • Comparison of cultural manifestations in the middle and upper Paleolithic Altai with options cultures of Eurasia , Central Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean to determine the general and specific features;
  • Definition of the scope , direction and development trends , the internal variability of the production processes of adaptation and direction of the alien population;
  • Summary of the results of earlier studies to identify common patterns and regional characteristics of the anthropological transformation of the people of Western and Southern Siberia in antiquity and the Middle Ages.

As a result of the planned research will determine the timeframe episodes of intercultural exchange in the Altai Mountains in the Upper Pleistocene , the elucidation of the nature of the population dynamics and the level of interpopulation interaction in the test time in the context of the problems of formation of modern humans. Creating the modern concept of the dynamics of settlement in Western Siberia in the context of the general processes occur in northern Asia in ancient times and the Middle Ages . Reconstruction of the ethno-cultural situation in antiquity and the Middle Ages in Northern Eurasia.

Molecular phylogenetics and microevolution phenomena (hybridization, polyploidy) on the example of model taxa of Eurasian largest families of vascular plants.

Project management: Dmitriy A. German, Candidate of Biological Science; Aleksandr I. Shmakov, Doctor of Biology, Director of the South-Siberian Botanical Garden, Professor

The study of biodiversity closely related to the problem of its conservation is one of the major issues of biological sciences. Revealing the ways of evolution of various groups of organisms is a key aspect of biodiversity studies. The latter are the focus of biological systematics and phylogeny. The use of current molecular methods in systematics provides an opportunity of critical evaluating the traditional schemes of classification of plant kingdom. Such phenomena as hybridization, change of ploidy level, apomixis, etc. play considerable role in plant speciation and evolution. Currently, the methods allowing revealing and analysis of phylogenetic relationships between varieties, microspecies, hybrid and apomictic complexes are not yet well elaborated. These problems can be partly addressed by using the various DNA fragments analysis and sequencing of coding and non-coding sites of genes. However, as soon as these approaches are designated for study of species groups, genera and other above-species taxonomic units, they are hardily applicable at the species and infraspecies levels. Since last years, a new approach based on the analysis of expression patterns of all genes (transcriptome analysis) has been introduced. The project team plans testing the possibility of using the transcribed sequences for revealing the relationships between taxonomic units of the lower rank by analysis of the DNA-pool as well as comparing the qualitative and quantitative differences in RNA at the level of species and below.  Comparative analysis of DNA and RNA-based phylogenies of the studied taxa is also planned.

Print version Modified 27.06.2017