Biomolecular study of the human remains from tomb 5859 in the Etruscan necropolis of Monterozzi, Tarquinia (Viterbo, Italy)

Cappellini, Enrico; Chiarelli, B.; Sìneo, Luca; Casoli, Antonella; Gioia, Antonella Di; Vernesi, Cristiano; Biella, Maria Cristina; Caramelli, David

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2003.10.012

Cited by 17 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“… Stone & Stoneking 1999 ; Caramelli et al . 2003 ; Cappellini et al . 2004 ), and (ii) samples from warmer climes, which have low protein contents and high d / l Asx (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Published studies of D/L Asx from bone fall into two categories: (i) samples from temperate regions, which generally show relatively high protein contents and low Asx D/L (e.g. Stone & Stoneking 1999;Caramelli et al 2003;Cappellini et al 2004), and (ii) samples from warmer climes, which have low protein contents and high D/L Asx (e.g. Kumar et al 2000;Reed et al 2003).…”

Section: (B) Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Is amino acid racemization a useful tool for screening for ancient DNA in bone?

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many rare and valuable ancient specimens now carry the scars of ancient DNA research, as questions of population genetics and phylogeography require larger sample sets. This fuels the demand for reliable techniques to screen for DNA preservation prior to destructive sampling. Only one such technique has been widely adopted: the extent of aspartic acid racemization (AAR). The kinetics of AAR are believed to be similar to the rate of DNA depurination and therefore a good measure of the likelihood of DNA survival. Moreover, AAR analysis is only minimally destructive. We report the first comprehensive test of AAR using 91 bone and teeth samples from temperate and high-latitude sites that were analysed for DNA. While the AAR range of all specimens was low (0.02–0.17), no correlation was found between the extent of AAR and DNA amplification success. Additional heating experiments and surveys of the literature indicated that d/l Asx is low in bones until almost all the collagen is lost. This is because aspartic acid is retained in the bone within the constrained environment of the collagen triple helix, where it cannot racemize for steric reasons. Only if the helix denatures to soluble gelatin can Asx racemize readily, but this soluble gelatine is readily lost in most burial environments. We conclude that Asx d/l is not a useful screening technique for ancient DNA from bone.

show abstract

“… Stone & Stoneking 1999 ; Caramelli et al . 2003 ; Cappellini et al . 2004 ), and (ii) samples from warmer climes, which have low protein contents and high d / l Asx (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%