Ancient DNA
Encyclopedia
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
isolated from ancient specimen
Specimen
A specimen is a portion/quantity of material for use in testing, examination, or study.BiologyA laboratory specimen is an individual animal, part of an animal, a plant, part of a plant, or a microorganism, used as a representative to study the properties of the whole population of that species or...
s. It can be also loosely described as any DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
recovered from biological samples that have not been preserved specifically for later DNA analyses. Examples include the analysis of DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
recovered from archaeological and historical skeletal material, mummified
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
tissues, archival collections of non-frozen medical specimens, preserved plant remains, ice and permafrost
Permafrost
In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...
cores, Holocene plankton in marine and lake sediments, and so on. Unlike modern genetic analyses, ancient DNA studies are characterised by low quality DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. This places limits on what analyses can achieve. Furthermore, due to degradation of the DNA molecules, a process which correlates loosely with factors such as time, temperature and presence of free water, upper limits exist beyond which no DNA is deemed likely to survive. Current estimates suggest that in optimal environments, i.e. environments which are very cold, such as permafrost or ice, an upper limit of max 1 Million years exists. As such, early studies that reported recovery of much older DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
, for example, from Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
remains, have been proven to be wrong(Reference needed), with results stemming from sample or extract contamination, as opposed to authentic extracted DNA.
History of Ancient DNA studies
Arguably the first aDNA study was in 1984, with a publication by Russ Higuchi and colleagues at Berkeley that was to revolutionise the scope of molecular biologyMolecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
, traces of DNA from a museum specimen of the Quagga
Quagga
The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the front part of the body only...
, not only remained in the specimen over 150 years after the death of the individual, but could be extracted and sequenced. Over the next two years, through investigations into natural and artificially mummified specimens, Svante Pääbo
Svante Pääbo
Svante Pääbo is a Swedish biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm to Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane in 1982, and his mother, Estonian Karin Pääbo.He earned his PhD from Uppsala...
both confirmed that this phenomenon was not limited to relatively recent museum specimens, but could apparently be replicated in a range of mummified
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
samples that dated as far back as several thousand years (Pääbo
Svante Pääbo
Svante Pääbo is a Swedish biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm to Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane in 1982, and his mother, Estonian Karin Pääbo.He earned his PhD from Uppsala...
1985a; Pääbo
Svante Pääbo
Svante Pääbo is a Swedish biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm to Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane in 1982, and his mother, Estonian Karin Pääbo.He earned his PhD from Uppsala...
1985b; Pääbo
Svante Pääbo
Svante Pääbo is a Swedish biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm to Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane in 1982, and his mother, Estonian Karin Pääbo.He earned his PhD from Uppsala...
1986).
Nevertheless, the laborious processes that were required at that time to sequence such DNA (through bacterial cloning) were an effective brake on the development of the field of ancient DNA (aDNA). However, with the development of the Polymerase Chain Reaction
Polymerase chain reaction
The polymerase chain reaction is a scientific technique in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence....
(PCR) in the late 1980s the field was presented with the ability to rapidly progress.
Double primers PCR amplification of aDNA (jumping-PCR) can produce highly-skewed and non-authentic sequence artifacts. Multiple primer, nested PCR
Nested polymerase chain reaction
Nested polymerase chain reaction is a modification of polymerase chain reaction intended to reduce the contamination in products due to the amplification of unexpected primer binding sites....
strategy was used to overcome those shortcomings.
Single primer extension (abr. SPEX) amplification was introduced in 2007 to address post mortem DNA modification damage.
Problems and errors
aDNA may contain a large number of postmortem mutationMutation
In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...
s, increasing with time. Some regions of polynucleotide are more susceptible to this degradation so sequence data can bypass statistical filters used to check the validity of data. Due to sequencing errors, great caution should be applied to interpretation of population size. Substitutions resulting from deamination cytosine residues are vastly overrepresented in the ancient DNA sequences. Miscoding of C to T and G to A accounts for the majority of errors.
Antediluvian DNA studies
The post-PCR era heralded a wave of publications as numerous research groups tried their hands at aDNA. Soon a series of incredible findings had been published, claiming authentic DNA could be extracted from specimens that were millions of years old, into the realms of what Lindahl (1993b) has labelled AntediluvianAntediluvian
The antediluvian period meaning "before the deluge" is the period referred to in the Bible between the Creation of the Earth and the Deluge . The narrative takes up chapters 1-6 of Genesis...
DNA. The majority of such claims were based on the retrieval of DNA from organisms preserved in amber
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
. Insects such as stingless bees (Cano et al. 1992a; Cano et al. 1992b), termites (De Salle et al. 1992; De Salle et al. 1993) and wood gnats (De Salle and Grimaldi 1994), as well as plant (Poinar
Hendrik Poinar
Hendrik Nicholas Poinar is an evolutionary biologist specializing in ancient DNA. Poinar first became known for extracting DNA sequences from ground sloth coprolites. He is currently director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.- Education and academic career :The...
et al. 1993) and bacterial (Cano et al. 1994) sequences were extracted from Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
n amber dating to the Oligocene
Oligocene
The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...
epoch. Still older sources of Lebanese amber-encased weevil
Weevil
A weevil is any beetle from the Curculionoidea superfamily. They are usually small, less than , and herbivorous. There are over 60,000 species in several families, mostly in the family Curculionidae...
s, dating to within the Cretaceous epoch, reportedly also yielded authentic DNA (Cano et al. 1993). DNA retrieval was also not limited to amber. Several sediment-preserved plant remains dating to the Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
were successfully investigated (Golenberg et al. 1990; Golenberg 1991). Then, in 1994 and to international acclaim, Woodward et al. reported the most exciting results to date -mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences that had apparently been extracted from dinosaur bones dating to over 80 million years ago. When in 1995 two further studies reported dinosaur DNA sequences extracted from a Cretaceous egg (An et al. 1995; Li et al. 1995) it seemed that the field would truly revolutionise knowledge of the Earth’s evolutionary past.
Unfortunately the golden days of aDNA did not last. A critical review of ancient DNA literature through the development of the field highlights that, with two famous but highly criticised exceptions that claim the retrieval of 250 million years old halobacterial sequences from Halite
Halite
Halite , commonly known as rock salt, is the mineral form of sodium chloride . Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or gray depending on the amount and type of impurities...
, few recent studies have succeeded in amplifying DNA from remains older than several hundred thousand years. The Dinosaur DNA was later revealed to be human Y-Chromosome.
Ancient DNA studies
Despite the problems associated with ‘antediluvian’ DNA, a wide, and ever-increasing range of aDNA sequences have now been published from a range of animal and plant taxaTaxon
|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...
. Tissues examined include artificially or naturally mummified animal remains, bone (c.f. Hagelberg et al. 1989; Cooper et al. 1992; Hagelberg et al. 1994), paleofaeces, alcohol preserved specimens (Junqueira et al. 2002), rodent middens, dried plant remains (Goloubinoff et al. 1993; Dumolin-Lapegue et al. 1999) and recently, extractions of animal and plant DNA directly from soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
samples.
Ancient DNA studies on human remains
Due to the considerable anthropologicalAnthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, and public interest
Public interest
The public interest refers to the "common well-being" or "general welfare." The public interest is central to policy debates, politics, democracy and the nature of government itself...
directed towards human remains, it is only natural that they have received a similar amount of attention from the DNA community. Due to their obvious signs of morphological
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
preservation, many studies utilised mummified tissue as a source of ancient human DNA. Examples include both naturally preserved specimens, for example those preserved in ice, such as the Ötzi the Iceman
Ötzi the Iceman
Ötzi the Iceman , Similaun Man, and Man from Hauslabjoch are modern names for a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived about 5,300 years ago. The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. The nickname comes from the...
(Handt et al. 1994), or through rapid desiccation
Desiccation
Desiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately sealed container.-Science:...
, for example high-altitude mummies from the Andes (c.f. Pääbo
Svante Pääbo
Svante Pääbo is a Swedish biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm to Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane in 1982, and his mother, Estonian Karin Pääbo.He earned his PhD from Uppsala...
1986; Montiel et al. 2001)), as well as various sources of artificially preserved tissue (such as the chemically treated mummies of ancient Egypt). However, mummified remains are a limited resource, and the majority of human aDNA studies have focused on extracting DNA from two sources that are much more common in the archaeological record
Archaeological record
The archaeological record is the body of physical evidence about the past. It is one of the most basic concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record....
– bone
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...
and teeth
Tooth
Teeth are small, calcified, whitish structures found in the jaws of many vertebrates that are used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or for defensive purposes. The roots of teeth are embedded in the Mandible bone or the Maxillary bone and are...
. Recently, several other sources have also yielded DNA, including paleofaeces
Coprolite
A coprolite is fossilized animal dung. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κοπρος / kopros meaning 'dung' and λιθος / lithos meaning 'stone'. They...
(Poinar
Hendrik Poinar
Hendrik Nicholas Poinar is an evolutionary biologist specializing in ancient DNA. Poinar first became known for extracting DNA sequences from ground sloth coprolites. He is currently director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.- Education and academic career :The...
et al. 2001) and hair
Hair
Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....
(Baker et al. 2001, Gilbert et al. 2004). Contamination remains a major problem when working on ancient human material.
Ötzi
- Ötzi mtDNA belongs to the extinct or yet to be discovered K1ö, a subclade of K1 haplogoupHaplogroup K (mtDNA)In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup K is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup, defined by HVR1 mutations 16224C and 16311C.-Origin:It is the most common subclade of haplogroup U8, and it has an estimated age of c. 12,000 years BP....
. In 2008 all mtDNA from this frozen specimen was successfully sequencedDNA sequencingDNA sequencing includes several methods and technologies that are used for determining the order of the nucleotide bases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine—in a molecule of DNA....
. It is the first completely sequenced ancient mtDNA. The team promised to reveal his full genome in 2011.
Tutankhamen
Sixteen Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats were amplifiedin Amenhotep III, KV55, and Tutankhamun and yielded few results, with differing success in the various markers contained in the multiplex PCR kit used. Markers DYS393=13 and YGATA-H4=11. Syngeneic Y-chromosomal DNA in the 3 former mummies indicates they share the same paternal lineage. An up to 30-fold testing of polymorphic autosomal microsatellite loci yielded complete data sets for all 8 markers in 7 mummies. Double line, indicating consanguinity, here represents a first-degree brother-sister relationship was established between Tutankhamen and his wife, Ankhensenamun.Neanderthal
- mtDNA
- In 2004, NeanderthalNeanderthalThe Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
ancient mtDNA was partially sequenced in the HVR region for following specimens: Feldhofer 1Neanderthal 1Feldhofer 1, Neanderthal 1 is the common name for the initial 40,000-year-old Neanderthal specimen found in Kleine Feldhofer Grotte in August 1856. It represents the beginning of paleoanthropology as a scientific discipline....
, Feldhofer 2 from Germany; Mezmaiskaya from the Russian Caucasus; Vindija 75, Vindija 77, Vindija 80 from Croatia; Engis 2 from Belgium; La Chapelle-aux-Saints from France; El SidrónSidrón CaveThe Sidrón Cave is an ancient cave in Piloña municipality, Asturias, northwestern Spain, where Paleolithic rock art and Neanderthal remains have been found. It is approximately 600 meters in length....
: 441, 1253, and 1351c from Spain; and Rochers-de-Villeneuve from France and Riparo Mezzena - In 2009, six NeanderthalNeanderthalThe Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
mtDNA full sequences were done and published in the NCIB Genebank listed as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis complete mitochondrial genome from two studies. The mtDNA genetic diversity in Neandertals 38,000 to 70,000 years ago was about one-third of modern humans. The effective population of Neandertals was smaller than modern humans and great apes.The fossil ages of the five dated Neandertal sequences and a human-chimpanzee divergence of ~6 million years.
- In 2004, Neanderthal
- Chromosomal DNA
- Two distinct Neanderthals from El Sidrón cave (1253 and 1351c) have the same mutations at position A-911, G-977 in exon 7 of FOXP2FOXP2Forkhead box protein P2 also known as FOXP2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FOXP2 gene, located on human chromosome 7 . FOXP2 orthologs have also been identified in all mammals for which complete genome data are available...
gene as present day people. - Neanderthal Genome ProjectNeanderthal Genome ProjectThe Neanderthal genome project is a collaboration of scientists coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and 454 Life Sciences in the United States to sequence the Neanderthal genome....
shotgun sequencing specimens (Vi33.16), 21, 671 and 548 from Vindija CaveVindija CaveVindija is a cave near the city of Varaždin, Croatia. It contains one of the best preserved remains of the Neanderthals in the world, found in 1974. It is estimated that the Neanderthal man lived there about 30,000 years ago.... - El SidrónSidrón CaveThe Sidrón Cave is an ancient cave in Piloña municipality, Asturias, northwestern Spain, where Paleolithic rock art and Neanderthal remains have been found. It is approximately 600 meters in length....
1253 was heterozygous bitter taster. 13C AMSAccelerator mass spectrometryAccelerator mass spectrometry differs from other forms of mass spectrometry in that it accelerates ions to extraordinarily high kinetic energies before mass analysis. The special strength of AMS among the mass spectrometric methods is its power to separate a rare isotope from an abundant...
provided information on Neanderthal diet, now with sequencing A-DNA of TAS2R38TAS2R38TAS2R38 is a bitter taste receptor which facilitates the tasting of phenylthiocarbamide and propylthiouracil , although it does not explain supertasting.. Carriers of the PAV allele experience more bitterness from vegetables and consume vegetables less frequently and in lower amounts ....
his dining perception is known a little bit.
- Two distinct Neanderthals from El Sidrón cave (1253 and 1351c) have the same mutations at position A-911, G-977 in exon 7 of FOXP2
Neolithic European
- 5500 years old aDNA preserved in 11 Neolithic remains from GranollersGranollersGranollers is a city near Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and most densely populated city of the comarca of Vallès Oriental.Granollers is a bustling business centre, and many industries are located there...
in Catalonia show sequence similar to present day sample. The result suggesting a long-time genetic continuity, at least since NeolithicNeolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
times, in Western Europe female population.
Pathogen and microorganism a DNA analyses using human remains
The use of degraded human samples in aDNA analyses has not been limited to the amplification of human DNA. It is reasonable to assume that for a period of time post mortem, DNA may survive from any microorganisms present in the specimen at death. This not only includes pathogens present at the time of death (either the cause of death or long-term infections) but commensals and other associated microbes. Despite several studies that have reported limited preservation of such DNA, for example the lack of preservation of Helicobacter pyloriHelicobacter pylori
Helicobacter pylori , previously named Campylobacter pyloridis, is a Gram-negative, microaerophilic bacterium found in the stomach. It was identified in 1982 by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who found that it was present in patients with chronic gastritis and gastric ulcers, conditions that were...
in ethanol-preserved specimens dating to the 18th century, over 45 published studies report the successful retrieval of ancient pathogen
Pathogen
A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...
DNA from samples dating back to over 5,000 years old in humans, and as long as 17,000 years ago in other species. As well as the usual sources of mummified tissue, bones and teeth, such studies have also examined a range of other tissue samples, including calcified pleura
Pleural cavity
In human anatomy, the pleural cavity is the potential space between the two pleura of the lungs. The pleura is a serous membrane which folds back onto itself to form a two-layered, membrane structure. The thin space between the two pleural layers is known as the pleural cavity; it normally...
(Donoghue et al. 1998), tissue embedded in paraffin
Paraffin
In chemistry, paraffin is a term that can be used synonymously with "alkane", indicating hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to a mixture of alkanes that falls within the 20 ≤ n ≤ 40 range; they are found in the solid state at room temperature and begin to enter the...
, and formalin-fixed tissue.
Researchers specializing in ancient DNA
- M. Thomas P. GilbertMarcus Thomas Pius GilbertMarcus Thomas Pius Gilbert is an evolutionary biologist. He received a BA at Oriel College, Oxford University, and a D.Phil ) in the Zoology Dept of New College under Alan Cooper. Subsequently, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, at the...
- Svante PääboSvante PääboSvante Pääbo is a Swedish biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm to Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane in 1982, and his mother, Estonian Karin Pääbo.He earned his PhD from Uppsala...
- Hendrik PoinarHendrik PoinarHendrik Nicholas Poinar is an evolutionary biologist specializing in ancient DNA. Poinar first became known for extracting DNA sequences from ground sloth coprolites. He is currently director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.- Education and academic career :The...
- Beth ShapiroBeth ShapiroBeth A. Shapiro is an American evolutionary molecular biologist. She has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the Pennsylvania State University since 2007. Shapiro's work has centered on the analysis of ancient DNA...
- Joachim BurgerJoachim BurgerProfessor Dr Joachim Burger is a German anthropologist and molecular biologist based at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, where he runs the at the .- Scientific career :...
- Mark G. ThomasMark G. ThomasMark G. Thomas is a human evolutionary geneticist, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London...
- Eske WillerslevEske WillerslevEske Willerslev is a Danish evolutionary biologist notable for his pioneering work on Ancient DNA. He is currently a full professor at Copenhagen University and leader of the Ancient DNA and Evolution Group. He has received the Genius Award of Danish Science journalists for his combination of...
See also
- List of DNA tested mummies
- ArchaeogeneticsArchaeogeneticsArchaeogenetics, a term coined by Colin Renfrew, refers to the application of the techniques of molecular population genetics to the study of the human past. This can involve:*the analysis of DNA recovered from archaeological remains, i.e...
- Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroupsHuman mitochondrial DNA haplogroupsIn human genetics, a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by differences in human mitochondrial DNA. Haplogroups are used to represent the major branch points on the mitochondrial phylogenetic tree...
- Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup
- Phylogenetic treePhylogenetic treeA phylogenetic tree or evolutionary tree is a branching diagram or "tree" showing the inferred evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities based upon similarities and differences in their physical and/or genetic characteristics...
- Tyrannosaurus#Soft tissue, Dinosaur mummy
- List of genetic results derived from historical figures
- Archaeogenetics of the Near EastArchaeogenetics of the Near EastThe archaeogenetics of the Near East involves the study of aDNA or ancient DNA, identifying haplogroups and haplotypes of ancient skeletal remains from both YDNA and mtDNA for populations of the Ancient Near East The archaeogenetics of the Near East involves the study of aDNA or ancient DNA,...
- Genetics and archaeogenetics of South AsiaGenetics and archaeogenetics of South AsiaThe study of the genetics and archaeogenetics of the ethnic groups of South Asia aims at uncovering these groups' genetic history. The geographic position of India makes Indian populations important for the study of the early dispersal of all human populations on the Eurasian continent.The Indian...
- Genetic history of Africa
- Genetic history of EuropeGenetic history of EuropeThe genetic history of Europe can be inferred from the patterns of genetic diversity across continents and time. The primary data to develop historical scenarios coming from sequences of mitochondrial, Y-chromosome and autosomal DNA from modern populations and if available from ancient DNA...
- Genetic history of ItalyGenetic history of ItalyDuring prehistory Italy was populated by different but very similar Indo-European groups, later collectively listed amongst the Ancient peoples of Italy, of whom the Italic one was predominant....
- Genetic history of North AfricaGenetic history of North AfricaThe population genetics of North Africans has been heavily influenced by geography.The Sahara desert to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the North were important barriers to gene flow in prehistoric times. However Eurasia and Africa form a single land mass at the Suez. At the Straits of...
- Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas
- Genetic history of the Iberian PeninsulaGenetic history of the Iberian PeninsulaThe ancestry of modern Iberians is consistent with the geographical situation of the Iberian Peninsula in the south-west of Europe: there are strong connections with both Mediterranean Europe and Atlantic Europe....
- Genetic history of the British IslesGenetic history of the British IslesThe genetic history of the British Isles is the subject of research within the larger field of human population genetics. It has developed in parallel with DNA testing technologies capable of identifying genetic similarities and differences between populations...
Conferences
- The 1st International Ancient DNA Conference was held at St John's College, Nottingham, England, from July 8 to July 10, 1991.
- The 2nd International Ancient DNA Conference was held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA, from October 7 to October 9, 1993.
- The 3rd International Ancient DNA Conference was held at Oxford University, Oxford, England, from July 21 to July 22, 1995.
- The 4th International Ancient DNA Conference was held at the Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany, from June 5 to June 7, 1997.
- http://members.chello.nl/jperk/Ancient%20DNA%205.pdf - The 5th International Ancient DNA Conference was held at the University of Manchester, Manchester, England, from July 12 to July 14, 2000.
- The 6th International Conference on Ancient DNA and Associated Biomolecules was held at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Rehovot, Israel, from July 21 to July 25, 2002.
- The 7th International Conference on Ancient DNA & Associated Biomolecules was held at the University of Queensland, Brisbane,, Australia, from July 10 to July 17, 2004.
- http://csk.umed.lodz.pl/~dmb/DNA8/doc/?plik=inv - The 8th International Conference on Ancient DNA and Associated Biomolecules was held at the Medical University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland, from October 16 to October 19, 2006.
- The 9th International Conference on Ancient DNA and Associated Biomolecules was held at the University of Naples, Naples & Pompeii, Italy, from October 19 to October 22, 2008.
- http://www.adna2010.com - The 10th International Conference on Ancient DNA and Associated Biomolecules was held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany, from October 10 to October 13, 2010.
External links
- Famous mtDNA
- Ancient mtDNA
- Tooth gives up oldest human mtDNA
- Extinct cave bear mtDNA sequenced
- British teacher finds long-lost relative: 9,000-year-old man - mtDNA analysis.
- Genetic characterization of the body attributed to the evangelist Luke (PDF) better link http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/98/23/13460 - mtDNA
- Unravelling the mummy mystery - using DNA - no data on YDNA only mtDNA
- Evidence of the Past: A Map and Status of Ancient Remains - samples from USA no sequence data here.