Research | Technical development

Ancient DNA is a relatively young field of research and, therefore, many techniques are still at the stage of development. To improve the use of ancient DNA sequences we are continuously trying to improve existing techniques and develop new ones. A key step in ancient DNA research is the extraction of DNA from specimens. Extraction often conflicts with curator requirements that intend to avoid damage to the specimens whereas DNA extraction usually requires cutting of a piece or drilling into a specimen.


Therefore, we developed a method for extraction of DNA from bone and teeth specimens that does not cause any obvious damage. We successfully used this technique for extracting both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from historical specimens up to 160 years old. We also improved the extraction of DNA from ancient specimens up to an age of 50,000 years and beyond. Currently we try to atomize this protocol to allow larger numbers of samples to be extracted in a certain time.

A major progress for the analysis of ancient DNA sequences was the introduction of a two-step multiplex PCR. Initially used to sequence the complete mitochondrial genome of the mammoth, we have used it for the same purpose with the extinct mastodon and for the first amplification of a complete nuclear gene from an extinct species. It was also used in the first stage of the Neanderthal genome project at our institute to verify mitochondrial genome sequences initially determined by means of 454 shotgun sequencing.

Currently, we are working on techniques to adapt 454 sequencing to the needs of sequencing specific fragments from both modern and ancient DNA. To this end we have developed a tagging technique that allows the targeted sequencing of PCR fragments from hundreds of samples on a single 454 run. We also developed a technique to quantify 454 libraries which is especially useful when library production starts from small amounts of template DNA as in palaeogenomics projects.