Ancient DNA mapped from 700,000-year-old horse
Source: USA Today
Ancient DNA mapped from 700,000-year-old horse
Dan Vergano, USA TODAY 1:41 p.m. EDT June 26, 2013
Gene experts said Wednesday they've been able to unravel the genetic blueprint of a prehistoric horse that lived in Canada some 700,000 years ago, the oldest DNA mapping effort ever attempted.
A dramatic extension of the limits of ancient DNA recovery, the advance re-creates a gene map, or genome, which is roughly 10 times older than the previous record-holder. The feat suggests that ancient DNA may be recoverable from frozen remains almost a million years old, raising the possibility of someday recovering even more ancient gene maps of humanity's primitive ancestors.
"Obviously (this) opens great perspective as to the level of details we could reconstruct of our own origins," says study lead author Ludovic Orlando of Denmark's University of Copenhagen. "And actually the evolutionary history of almost every species living in the world today."
A research team in 2003 discovered the horse bones encased in the oldest known permafrost, at the Thistle Creek site in Canada's Yukon. The bones initially yielded promising signs of blood and other tissues, which encouraged the team to try DNA mapping. For comparison, the team also genetically mapped a DNA sample from a 43,000-year-old-horse, similarly frozen, as well as five modern horses, a donkey and a modern-day Przewalski's horse.
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Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/06/26/horse-dna-ancient/2459397/
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Wonderful![/center]
hope to hear more about DNA mapping of ancient critters.
Thank you.