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Brief communication: Identification of the authentic ancient DNA sequence in a human bone contaminated with modern DNA
Author(s) -
Bouwman Abigail S.,
Chilvers Elizabeth R.,
Brown Keri A.,
Brown Terence A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.20411
Subject(s) - ancient dna , dna , mitochondrial dna , sequence (biology) , dna sequencing , biology , cloning (programming) , contamination , human bone , genetics , evolutionary biology , computer science , gene , population , ecology , demography , sociology , in vitro , programming language
We present a method to distinguish authentic ancient DNA from contaminating DNA in a human bone. This is achieved by taking account of the spatial distribution of the various sequence families within the bone and the extent of degradation of the template DNAs, as revealed by the error content of the sequences. To demonstrate the veracity of the method, we handled two ancient human tibiae in order to contaminate them with modern DNA, and then subjected segments of the bones to various decontaminating treatments, including removal of the outer 1–2 mm, before extracting DNA, cloning, and obtaining a total of 107 mitochondrial DNA sequences. Sequences resulting from the deliberate contamination were located exclusively in the outer 1–2 mm of the bones, and only one of these 27 sequences contained an error that could be ascribed to DNA degradation. A second, much smaller set of relatively error‐free sequences, which we ascribe to contamination during excavation or curation, was also located exclusively in the outer 1–2 mm. In contrast, a family of 72 sequences, displaying extensive degradation products but identifiable as haplogroup U5a1a, was distributed throughout one of the bones and represents the authentic ancient DNA content of this specimen. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.