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September 19, 2005
Fossil DNA and Crystal Aggregates
BBC News is reporting a study of an improved technology for extracting DNA material from fossil bones.
As they say,
"It could aid the study of the evolution and migration of early modern humans, as well as extinct populations such as our close relatives, the Neanderthals."
The work, led by Dr Michal Salamon, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, uses a technique involving recovering DNA from crystal aggregates. They found that the DNA in these crystals was less contaminated and better preserved than DNA recovered using previous techniques.
The work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The BBC article is quite good and discusses the new technique in the context of ongoing disputes over the question of whether modern humans and Neanderthals are the same or different species. The big hope it that the new technique will allow recovery of nuclear DNA rather than only mitochondrial DNA.
The article also discusses the use of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA from modern people to track human migration.
Very interesting!
Posted by DuaneSmith at September 19, 2005 06:58 PM | Read more on Paleoanthropology |
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Comments
I did a story on this as well here - incidently this is my first ever attempt at blog whoring!
Posted by: afarensis at September 20, 2005 05:20 PM
Sorry, I thought I remembered something but I was not sure and couldn't find it. Whore away.
Posted by: Duane at September 20, 2005 05:28 PM
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