Genomic analysis of the blood attributed to Louis XVI (1754-1793), king of France.
A pyrographically decorated gourd, dated to the French Revolution period, has been alleged to contain a handkerchief dipped into the blood of the French king Louis XVI (1754-1793) after his beheading but recent analyses of living males from two Bourbon branches cast doubts on its authenticity. We sequenced the complete genome of the DNA contained in the gourd at low coverage (~2.5×) with coding sequences enriched at a higher ~7.3× coverage. We found that the ancestry of the gourd's genome does not seem compatible with Louis XVI's known ancestry. From a functional perspective, we did not find an excess of alleles contributing to height despite being described as the tallest person in Court. In addition, the eye colour prediction supported brown eyes, while Louis XVI had blue eyes. This is the first draft genome generated from a person who lived in a recent historical period; however, our results suggest that this sample may not correspond to the alleged king.
Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Iñigo
I
Olalde
Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Federico
F
Sánchez-Quinto
1] Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain [2] Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Debayan
D
Datta
Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Urko M
UM
Marigorta
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 612 Charles E.Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Charleston W K
CW
Chiang
Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Juan Antonio
JA
Rodríguez
Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Marcos
M
Fernández-Callejo
1] Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain [2] Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Irene
I
González
1] Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain [2] Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Magda
M
Montfort
Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Laura
L
Matas-Lalueza
Departament d'Estadstica, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
Sergi
S
Civit
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Lab. of Molecular Anthropology, Universit di Bologna, Via Selmi 3, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
Donata
D
Luiselli
Laboratory of Medical and Forensic Anthropology, UFR des Sciences de la Sant, 78180 Montigny-le-Bretonneux, Paris, France.
Philippe
P
Charlier
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Lab. of Molecular Anthropology, Universit di Bologna, Via Selmi 3, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
Davide
D
Pettener
Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Oscar
O
Ramírez
1] Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain [2] Instituci Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avanats (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain [3] Centre de Regulaci Genmica (CRG), Barcelona 08003, Spain [4] National Institute for Bioinformatics (INB), Barcelona 08003, Spain.
Arcadi
A
Navarro
1] Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain [2] Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Heinz
H
Himmelbauer
1] Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain [2] Instituci Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avanats (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain [3] CNAG (Centro Nacional de Analisis Genomico), 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
Tomàs
T
Marquès-Bonet
Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Carles
C
Lalueza-Fox
D000483:Alleles; D004247:DNA; D059018:DNA Contamination; D059472:Exome; D053803:Forensic Genetics; D005602:France; D015894:Genome, Human; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D056186:Metagenomics; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable
D004247:DNA