Viking DNA Extracted From 1,000 Year Old Skeleton
Analysis of DNA from the remains of ancient humans provides valuable insights into such important questions as the origin of genetic diseases, migration patterns of our forefathers and tribal and family patterns. Unfortunately, severe problems connected with the retrieval and analysis of DNA from ancient organisms (like the scarcity of intact molecules) are further aggravated in the case of ancient humans. This is because of the great risk of contamination with abundant DNA from modern humans. Humans, then, are involved at all steps, from excavation to laboratory analyses. This means that many previous results have subsequently been disputed as attributed to the presence of contaminant DNA, and some researchers even claim that it is impossible to obtain reliable results with ancient human DNA. Using freshly sampled material from ten Viking skeletons from around AD 1,000, from a non-Christian burial site on the Danish island of Funen, Dissing and colleagues showed that it is indeed possible to retrieve authentic DNA from ancient humans. read more
Read the whole article on Scientific Blogging
More from Scientific Blogging
Related
- Researchers retrieve authentic Viking DNA from 1,000-year-old skeletonsTue, 27 May 2008, 22:14:16 EDT
- Evidence from dirty teeth: Ancient Peruvians ate wellMon, 1 Dec 2008, 17:22:15 EST
- New research refutes myth of pure Scandinavian raceMon, 9 Jun 2008, 17:35:49 EDT
- Earliest known human TB found in 9,000 year-old skeletonsTue, 14 Oct 2008, 20:35:43 EDT
- Ancient African exodus mostly involved men, geneticists findSun, 21 Dec 2008, 13:35:28 EST