title: Methodological strategies to assess the degree of bone preservation for ancient DNA studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Archaeological bones contain only small amounts of DNA due to post-mortem DNA degradation and the changes endogenous DNA is subjected to during diagenesis. An important step before undertaking such time-consuming and costly analyses as ancient DNA investigation is to predict the presence of DNA in ancient samples. To date, the leading screening method has been amino acid racemization; however, other analytical techniques can also be used to assess the degree of bone preservation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the present study was to relate the presence of DNA with bone preservation in order to select samples potentially suitable for ancient DNA analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Bones collected from several archaeological sites, different locations (cave, rockshelter or sub divo) and diachronic periods were selected for analytical and spectroscopic analysis in order to correlate bone tissue preservation with the presence of DNA. Different techniques were combined to assess the degree of preservation of organic and inorganic components.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As determined by different analytical methods, preservation of the inorganic component was best associated with the presence of DNA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Evaluation of the bone preservation state may be an efficient step to predict the presence of DNA in ancient samples prior to aDNA analysis.
authors.affiliation: Centro di Antropologia molecolare per lo studio del DNA antico, Dipartimento di Biologia .
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scorrano
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Valentini
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martínez-Labarga
authors.forename: Mario Federico
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Rolfo
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fiammenghi
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lo Vetro
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martini
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Casoli
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ferraris
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Palleschi
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palleschi
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rickards
mesh_terms: D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005580:Fossils; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: Amino-acid racemization; Early Neolithic; crystallinity; roman imperial age; upper paleolithic