A highly polymorphic microsatellite (CA)n-marker (CAct685) previously isolated from human chromosome 19 cosmid library was localized near GPI in 19q13.1. For the fine localization of this marker, the hybridization with chromosome 19-specific cosmid libraries assembled in contigs was used. Polymorphism analysis of the marker in 12 populations of Russia and neighboring countries showed 14 alleles containing from 16 to 30 repeat units. Populations belonging to Indo-European, Uralic and Altaic linguistic families demonstrated a great similarity in allele frequency profiles. Differences between these populations were lower for CAct685 than for classical markers. Allele distribution of CAct685 in a Chukchi population belonging to the Chukchi-Kamchatkan linguistic family differs from those in all other populations, that may be typical for Mongoloid population or reflect an ethnic history of Chukchi as a small population. Thus use of the CAct685 marker seems to be effective for analysis of distant peoples.