Posted on 09/27/2007 10:18:39 PM PDT by saganite
Science Daily Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller of Penn State, working with Thomas Gilbert from Copenhagen and a large international consortium, discovered that hair shafts provide an ideal source of ancient DNA -- a better source than bones and muscle for studying the genome sequences of extinct animals. Their research achievement, described in a paper to be published in the journal Science on Sept. 28, includes the sequencing of entire mitochondrial genomes from 10 individual woolly mammoths.
Schuster and Miller, working at Penn State's Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, and Gilbert, from the Center for Ancient Genetics at the University of Copenhagen, led a team of collaborators that includes a large group of researchers and museum curators from the United States, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The research team obtained hair from 10 woolly mammoths collected from a wide swathe of northern Siberia and with dates of death spanning approximately 38,000 years -- from 50,000 years to 12,000 years ago. Before this study, only seven mitochondrial genomes from extinct animals had been published: four from ancient birds, two from mammoths and one from a mastodon.
"DNA in bones and muscle usually degrades and becomes contaminated with genetic material from other sources such as bacteria, limiting its usefulness in scientific studies," Schuster explained. Because only a tiny proportion of ancient bones and muscle are preserved in such a way that uncontaminated DNA can be recovered, research with such materials has involved laborious efforts, sometimes spanning as long as six years for a single study. In contrast, Miller said, "Once I get the data from the genome sequencer, it takes only five minutes to assemble the entire mitochondrial genome."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Obviously you don't read enough.... ;-)
... and, apparently, neither do I. #3 on the thread with the same stupid pic. Sheesh.
Third!
(hangs head....) Yeah, I figured that out, 2 clicks too late.
I feel terrible, it wasn't you that buggered your dog, I should have known it was SAJ.
Oy! Folks have danced around the fact that the balding population may have another chance instead of Rogaine, if they want to take the time to sit on the egg...no worse than a bikini wax.
I have said the same thing many times - usually late at night - and have only had the cops called on me twice.:)
Hi, Hup, good to see you.
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Thanks uglybiker. |
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Thanks for the ping. This is fascinating.
Just be glad no one posted any Helen Thomas pics. ;’)
I wonder if leash and pooper-scooper laws will apply to Mammoths...
Not to worry.
Mammoths don't poop.
That's what makes them so mean.
You know what that means from back in the old days when dear old Mother Harrowup used to screech, "Get ye knuckles out o' your nose, leave the pig alone, and don't touch me hot buttons!"
She was a dear soul - and so was the pig.
Ackk!!
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