Next Generation Sequencing of Ancient DNA: Requirements, Strategies and Perspectives.
The invention of next-generation-sequencing has revolutionized almost all fields of genetics, but few have profited from it as much as the field of ancient DNA research. From its beginnings as an interesting but rather marginal discipline, ancient DNA research is now on its way into the centre of evolutionary biology. In less than a year from its invention next-generation-sequencing had increased the amount of DNA sequence data available from extinct organisms by several orders of magnitude. Ancient DNA  research is now not only adding a temporal aspect to evolutionary studies and allowing for the observation of evolution in real time, it also provides important data to help understand the origins of our own species. Here we review progress that has been made in next-generation-sequencing of ancient DNA over the past five years and evaluate sequencing strategies and future directions.
Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, 270 Great King Street, 9016 Dunedin, New Zealand. michael.knapp@otago.ac.nz.
Michael
M
Knapp
Department of Biology, The University of York, Wentworth Way, Heslington, YO10 5DD, York, UK. michi@palaeo.eu.
Michael
M
Hofreiter