DNA preservation: A microsatellite-DNA study on ancient skeletal remains

Abstract

To determine the effect of environmental factors on the preservation of DNA, archeological teeth of approximately similar age but greatly differing site milieu were examined for DNA content. The complex relational system of locational milieu of the samples was reduced to its essential and, at the same time, easily measurable factors. These are temperature, humidity, pH value, the geochemical properties of the soil, the amount of postmortal organic substances and the general degree of microbial infestation in the respective soil. The relative DNA content in the samples was established by determining the rate of successful polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifications. Differences in quantity and quality of the results are attributed to the respective prevailing environmental factor or to the respective storage conditions. Dryness, low temperature and absence of microorganisms favors the preservation of DNA. The bioapatite of bones and teeth, like the DNA, are preserved under neutral or slightly alkaline conditions. Brief storage at room temperature does not affect the amount of amplifiable DNA but does affect the reproducibility of the results. Long storage outside a lab freezer reduces the amount and the reproducibility of DNA amplifications in ancient specimens.

DNA profiling of disputed chilli samples (Capsicum annum) using ISSR-PCR and FISSR-PCR marker assays

“…By virtue of the greater number of bands ampli®ed per primer, ISSR markers have been used as markers of choice as compared to RFLP and RAPD markers for DNA ®ngerprinting and diversity analysis in eleucine, rice and maize and various other plant and animal species [7,17,20,22±24]. Most of the forensic studies which are being carried out are either based on SSRs [25,26] or minisatellites [27]. The former requires sequence information of the particular SSR loci thus restricting the forensic investigations only to the species where sequencing of the relevant microsatellite loci have been carried out while the latter involves southern blotting and hybridisation requiring large quantities of the template DNA (>5 mg) which is quite often a major limiting factor in the forensic investigations.…”

HVS-I polymorphism screening of ancient human mitochondrial DNA provides evidence for N9a discontinuity and East Asian haplogroups in the Neolithic Hungary

“…15 Ancient mutations by PCR screening can only be trapped, if replication of experiments, including sequencing and cloning, are available. Thus, DNA degradation presents several problems in prehistoric samples; 16 however, the rest of the opportunities of aDNA has been proven to be powerful tools in population reconstruction, because morphometry of skeletal remains alone appeared insufficient to describe migration events of historic populations.…”

İnsan İskeleti Parçalarından ve Diş Örneklerinden Amelogenin Genini Kullanarak Cinsiyet Belirleme

“…The STR loci HUMvWA31A, HUMTH01, HUMFES/FPS and amelogenin were analyzed. Differences in quantity and quality of the results are attributed to the respective prevailing environmental factors or to respective storage conditions 38 .…”