news @ nature.com�-�Cave bear DNA laid bare�-�Sequencing technique could also work for Neanderthals.
news @ nature.com�-�Cave bear DNA laid bare�-�Sequencing technique could also work for Neanderthals.
Nuclear DNA extracted from 40,000 year old cave bears. This is pretty exciting! Before, it was considered that DNA this old had been totally degraded and the fossils totally contaminated with bacterial DNA. Sure they could extract mitochondrial DNA from bones this old ... but that is extra-nuclear DNA. Mitochondrial DNA is so ubiquitous, that it survives even say, after an individual burns up in a vehicle accident. The nuclear DNA burns up.
It's great when people tackle the "Impossible".
This DNA was extracted, and most of the usable segments were on the order of 70 bp (base pairs) long. They used the >> dog << genome, because it has already been characterized. (The Bear genome has not).
This is the reason for my BearDog reference. THAT is an amazing creature in it's own right. I sure would have liked to have seen such an animal when it was living!
Nuclear DNA extracted from 40,000 year old cave bears. This is pretty exciting! Before, it was considered that DNA this old had been totally degraded and the fossils totally contaminated with bacterial DNA. Sure they could extract mitochondrial DNA from bones this old ... but that is extra-nuclear DNA. Mitochondrial DNA is so ubiquitous, that it survives even say, after an individual burns up in a vehicle accident. The nuclear DNA burns up.
It's great when people tackle the "Impossible".
This DNA was extracted, and most of the usable segments were on the order of 70 bp (base pairs) long. They used the >> dog << genome, because it has already been characterized. (The Bear genome has not).
This is the reason for my BearDog reference. THAT is an amazing creature in it's own right. I sure would have liked to have seen such an animal when it was living!
posted by Deep Hal at 1:34:00 AM
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