FACT SHEET — Ancient DNA (aDNA): What is it? Why is it important? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Anthropological Applications of Ancient DNA: Problems and Prospects
American Antiquity, 2006
The analysis of DNA extracted from archaeological specimens to address anthropological questions is becoming increasingly common. Despite widespread interest in ancient DNA (aDNA), the difficulties inherent in aDNA analysis are not generally appreciated by researchers outside of the field. The majority of samples subjected to aDNA analysis often fail to produce results, and successful analysis is typically limited to specimens that exhibit excellent preservation. Contamination of samples with exogenous DNA is an ongoing problem and requires careful design of research strategies to limit and identify all DNA contaminants. Overall, aDNA analysis is a highly specialized and technical field that requires extensive training and can be quite expensive. Thus, each aDNA study should be carefully planned with significant input from archaeologists, physical anthropologists, linguists, and related researchers and should focus on well-preserved samples that are likely to produce a clear answer ...
Ancient DNA as a multidisciplinary experience
Journal of Cellular Physiology, 2005
Investigation into DNA from archeological remains offers an inestimable tool for unraveling the history of humankind. However, a series of basic and technical difficulties renders the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) molecules troublesome, depending either on their own peculiar characteristics or on the complexity of processes affecting the bone matrix over time, all compromising the preservation of ancient DNA. This review underlines the contribution of many different disciplines, in particular molecular biology and genetics, to overcome these obstacles. The role of each expertise is illustrated to appropriately address the questions arising in aDNA investigations.
Ancient DNA Research in North America and Abroad: Challenges and Opportunities
The field of ancient DNA has revolutionized the way in which archaeologists and anthropologists investigate the lives of ancient people. However, there is a growing awareness that genetic research has important and diverse implications for people living today. These considerations are of particular importance for Indigenous peoples for whom genetic pronouncements about identity and ancestry may have important social, cultural, and political consequences. This thesis addresses these complex issues through three sources of information: literature on genetic research involving modern populations and how this translates to the context of ancient DNA; a review of case studies involving the genetic analysis of eight archaeological individuals found in British Columbia; and a survey completed by 47 ancient DNA researchers working around the world. The results of this tripartite study suggest that researchers working in this field face an array of social, ethical, and political challenges that differ significantly depending on the geographic location of their study. The unique needs, interests, and values of descendant communities situated around the world with whom the survey respondents interact, and in many cases work with, are important factors to consider when interpreting this difference. Three recommendations are provided along with relevant resources to assist researchers in navigating the challenges associated with ancient DNA studies and to create opportunities for a more equitable and collaborative investigation of the human past.
Ancestral DNA ― an incontestable source of data for Archaeology
2016
The DNA is present in every cell of a person’s body, not only in the cell’s nucleus but also in its cytoplasm, in mitochondria. Of great importance is the fact that, except for the rare occurrence of a mutation, the DNA in every cell of the person’s body is identical. As a result, DNA can be taken from saliva, sweat, blood, hair, skin or bone cells for individual identification. The many opportunities to obtain DNA evidence can be seen, for example, in the number of places where saliva has been identified: a bite mark, an area licked, bed linens, a mask worn, paper tissue, a washcloth, a cigarette butt, a toothpick, the rim of a bottle or glass, but all of those sources are available just for present DNA. In the case of old DNA, also called ancient DNA (aDNA), the things are different and the possibilities to analyse the substrate of genetic information are limited to bone fragments or teeth. Even in these conditions, the DNA analysis is a very accurate and powerful tool for getting...
Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 2021
Although the first ancient DNA molecules were extracted more than three decades ago, the first ancient nuclear genomes could only be characterized after high-throughput sequencing was invented. Genome-scale data have now been gathered from thousands of ancient archaeological specimens, and the number of ancient biological tissues amenable to genome sequencing is growing steadily. Ancient DNA fragments are typically ultrashort molecules and carry extensive amounts of chemical damage accumulated after death. Their extraction, manipulation and authentication require specific experimental wet-laboratory and dry-laboratory procedures before patterns of genetic variation from past individuals, populations and species can be interpreted. Ancient DNA data help to address an entire array of questions in anthropology, evolutionary biology and the environmental and archaeological sciences. The data have revealed a considerably more dynamic past than previously appreciated and have revolutionized our understanding of many major prehistoric and historic events. This Primer provides an overview of concepts and state-of-the-art methods underlying ancient DNA analysis and illustrates the diversity of resulting applications. The article also addresses some of the ethical challenges associated with the destructive analysis of irreplaceable material, emphasizes the need to fully involve archaeologists and stakeholders as part of the research design and analytical process, and discusses future perspectives.
Critical Perspectives on Ancient DNA: Concluding Commentary
A great deal of ink has been spilled over the prob lems exhibited by researchers attempting to incorporate ancient DNA (aDNA) data into anthropological models of prehistory. The prob lems are both ethical and interpretive. Several of the chapters in this volume have compellingly and comprehensively discussed the ethical violations abundantly seen in aDNA research. They show that since there continue to be significant professional rewards for rapid and sensational publication-a phenomenon explored in detail in Andreas Nyblom's chapter on the fuss surrounding the "the female Viking warrior"-and few professional consequences for riding roughshod over ethical standards and the concerns of descendant and stakeholder communities, researchers will continue to make their own culture-bound value judgments. The research community itself must decide whether the ethical requirements of engaging in aDNA research should have teeth, by whom those teeth should be wielded, and what kinds of wounds those teeth should inflict. I want to thank the editors of this volume for the opportunity to provide this commentary. I will use the space available to me to discuss two phenomena related to anthropological aDNA research: one relevant to the community of scholars interested in molecular approaches to the past, and one relevant to both public understandings of the kinds of research discussed in this book and to the ways in which scholars untrained in ge ne tics understand the data generated. First, however, I would like to be explicit about my positionality in this space, because the peculiarities of my academic background significantly shape my views on the current state of affairs. I am a molecular anthropologist trained in the four-field Americanist tradition, in which the subdisciplines of biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and sociocultural anthropology sit together under the umbrella of anthropology. I was trained in this way first in my home country of Aotearoa New Zealand,
Ancient DNA: a multifunctional tool for resolving anthropological questions
2015
En aquesta tesis hem analitzat diferents questions antropologiques usant l'ADN de poblacions antigues de Catalunya i Balears. Primer, hem intentat millorar la nostra metodologia aplicant un protocol diferent en l'estudi d'un jaciment que inesperadament havia proporcionat resultats escassos. Hem vist que sota algunes circumstancies el canvi del nostre protocol usant fenol-cloroform pel del kit QIAamp DNA investigator que usa l'afinitat de les particules de silica es positiu i millora significativament els resultats, encara que sembla que el metode optim pot variar en cada cas i que s'hauria de fer una valoracio especifica per decidir el protocol mes adequat. Seguidament, hem volgut anar fer l'analisi de les relacions intrapoblacionals en grups enterrats en comu per a examinar el paper de les families nuclears en l'antiguitat. Vam examinar una cova sepulcral amb multiples individus de Catalunya de finals de l'Edat del Bronze, i vam comprovar que la hipo...