Genomic sequencing of Pleistocene cave bears.
Despite the greater information content of genomic DNA, ancient DNA studies have largely been limited to the amplification of mitochondrial sequences. Here we describe metagenomic libraries constructed with unamplified DNA extracted from skeletal remains of two 40,000-year-old extinct cave bears. Analysis of approximately 1 megabase of sequence from each library showed that despite significant microbial contamination, 5.8 and 1.1% of clones contained cave bear inserts, yielding 26,861 base pairs of cave bear genome sequence. Comparison of cave bear and modern bear sequences revealed the evolutionary relationship of these lineages. The metagenomic approach used here establishes the feasibility of ancient DNA genome sequencing programs.
Noonan
James P
JP
United States Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA.
Hofreiter
Michael
M
Smith
Doug
D
Priest
James R
JR
Rohland
Nadin
N
Rabeder
Gernot
G
Krause
Johannes
J
Detter
J Chris
JC
Pääbo
Svante
S
Rubin
Edward M
EM
D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019295:Computational Biology; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history; D004285:Dogs / Q000235:genetics; D016678:Genome; D015698:Genomic Library; D049690:History, Ancient; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D001503:Ursidae / Q000235:genetics*
D004247:DNA