Mitochondrial DNA sequences from a 7000-year old brain

Abstract

Pieces of mitochondrial DNA from a 7000-year-old human brain were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. Albumin and high concentrations of polymerase were required to overcome a factor in the brain extract that inhibits amplification. For this and other sources of ancient DNA, we find an extreme inverse dependence of the amplification efficiency on the length of the sequence to be amplified. This property of ancient DNA distinguishes it from modern DNA and thus provides a new criterion of authenticity for use in research on ancient DNA. The brain is from an individual recently excavated from Little Salt Spring in southwestern Florida and the anthropologically informative sequences it yielded are the first obtained from archaeologically retrieved remains. The sequences show that this ancient individual belonged to a mitochondrial lineage that is rare in the Old World and not previously known to exist among Native Americans. Our finding brings to three the number of maternal lineages known to have been involved in the prehistoric colonization of the New World.

Multilocus phylogeny of the avian family Alaudidae (larks) reveals complex morphological evolution, non-monophyletic genera and hidden species diversity

“…At GU, amplification and sequencing of cytb followed the protocols described in Olsson et al (2005). At UP, cytb was amplified and sequenced using primers L14841 and H15696 and L15408 and H15915 (Edwards et al, 1991;Kocher et al, 1989;Pääbo et al, 1988) with primer annealing at 50-52°C. Amplification and sequencing of cytb at UMN, differing from the above primarily in the exact primers used, followed protocols described in Barker et al (2008).…”

Vinculos De Parentesco Por via Materna Entre Los Últimos Descendientes De La Etnia Kawésqar Y Algunos Entierros en Los Canales Patagónicos: Evidencia Desde El Estudio De Linajes Mitocondriales

“…Desde los primeros logros en la recuperación de ADN a partir de restos momificados (Pääbo et al 1988, DeSalle y Grimaldi 1994, höss et al 1994, y desde restos óseos (hagelberg et al 1991a, hagelberg et al 1991b) se ha llegado en la actualidad a una etapa de madurez en que se han consolidado los protocolo básicos de extracción y amplificación, así como los diversos controles y validaciones que deben cumplir los resultados obtenidos, dado el riesgo de contaminación con ADNs recientes (revisado en O'Rourke et al 2000, Pääbo et al 2004.…”

Molecular variability in Amerindians: widespread but uneven information

“…As far as native Americans are concerned, a large number of papers appeared in succession (Doran et al 1986, Pääbo et al 1988, 1989, Pääbo 1989, Hauswirth et al 1991, 1994, Rogan and Salvo 1994, Merriwether et al 1994, Handt et al 1996 emphasizing however many technical problems, especially the inability to amplify a significant number of samples and the contamination of samples with modern DNA (see extensive discussion in Kolman and Tuross 2000). Moreover, practically only mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) could be obtained.…”