Is amino acid racemization a useful tool for screening for ancient DNA in bone? - PubMed (original) (raw)

Relationship between amino acid concentration and extent of racemization. (a) Comparison of the

ratios of total bone (cross), the insoluble collagen fraction (open circle) and the soluble fraction (open triangle) against concentration (archaeological bone samples). (b)

Asx of total bone extracts plotted against concentration (aDNA sample set). Symbols refer to the ability to amplify aDNA: open circle, amplified readily; filled circle, amplified with difficulty; cross, failed to amplify. (c) The original Poinar et al. (1996) data plotted as fragment length versus

Asx (open circle, amplified; cross, failed to amplify). (d) Protein (nitrogen content) versus

Asx. Note the L-shaped nature of the plot, as seen also in (c). Data from: filled diamond, Hare (1980); filled triangle, Kessels & Dugworth (1980); open circle, Lajoie et al. (1980); filled circle, Prior et al. (1986); open diamond, Taylor et al. (1989); open triangle, El Mansouri et al. (1996). Two values that fall outside this trend are from arid environments: (1) Egyptian mummy; (2) Buhen Horse Sudan.