Reed et al. 2003

Citation

Reed, F. A., Kontanis, E. J., Kennedy, K. A., & Aquadro, C. F. (2003). Brief communication: ancient DNA prospects from Sri Lankan highland dry caves support an emerging global pattern. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 121(2), 112-116.

Links

• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.10211
• http://hawaiireedlab.com/pdf/r/reedetal2003.pdf (internal lab link only)

Published Abstract

Recovery of ancient DNA has become an increasingly important tool in elucidating the origins of past populations and their relationships. Unfortunately, many human skeletal remains do not contain original DNA amplifiable by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Amino‐acid racemization has proven to be a useful predictor of ancient DNA results. We analyzed the relative levels of amino‐acid preservation and racemization of human samples from two highland dry‐cave sites in Sri Lanka, and found that amino‐acid enantiomer ratios were inconsistent with successful authentic DNA recovery. A review of the literature reveals that these results are consistent with a global pattern of poor DNA preservation in the tropics.

Notes

This was one of our explorations into ancient DNA (the Hyde Park Mastodon and KV5 projects did not result in publications). At the end of the day we only had negative results. However, we salvaged this into a publication by showing it fit a significant global -pattern of negative results. The only frustrating thing was that the review process with the journal was glacially slow so that other publications came out in the meantime reporting the interaction with climate/temperature and ancient DNA preservation, which we had to incorporate and cite in the revision process.

The print figure is disrupted by a moiré pattern. At some point I will upload the original figure here.