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Publication Date
1-5-2022
Publication Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume Number
119
Issue Number
1
Abstract
DNA preserved in sediments has emerged as an important source of information about past ecosystems, independent of the discovery of skeletal remains. However, little is known about the sources of sediment DNA, the factors affecting its long-term preservation, and the extent to which it may be translocated after deposition. Here, we show that impregnated blocks of intact sediment are excellent archives of DNA. DNA distribution is highly heterogeneous at the microscale in the cave sediment we studied, suggesting that postdepositional movement of DNA is unlikely to be a common phenomenon in cases where the stratigraphy is undisturbed. Combining micromorphological analysis with microstratigraphic retrieval of ancient DNA therefore allows genetic information to be associated with the detailed archaeological and ecological record preserved in sediments.
Document Type
Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113666118
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Massilani, Diyendo; Morley, Mike W.; Mentzer, Susan M.; Aldeias, Vera; Vernot, Benjamin; Miller, Christopher; Stahlschmidt, Mareike; Kozlikin, Maxim B.; Shunkov, Michael V.; Derevianko, Anatoly P.; Conard, Nicholas J.; Wurz, Sarah; Henshilwood, Christopher S.; Vasquez, Javi; Essel, Elena; Nagel, Sarah; Richter, Julia; Nickel, Birgit; Roberts, Richard G.; Pääbo, Svante; Slon, Viviane; Goldberg, Paul; and Meyer, Matthias, "Microstratigraphic preservation of ancient faunal and hominin DNA in Pleistocene cave sediments" (2022). KIP Articles. 10680.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_articles/10680
