Enzymatic repair of selected cross-linked homoduplex molecules enhances nuclear gene rescue from Pompeii and Herculaneum remains.

ABSTRACT: Ancient DNA (aDNA) samples extracted from the bone remains of six equids buried by the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD were investigated to test pre-amplification and enzymatic repair procedures designed to enhance the rescue of nuclear genes. The extracts, which proved all positive for Equidae mtDNA amplification, proved positive only four times out of 18 when tested for single-copy Equidae nuclear genes (epsilon globin, p53 and gamma interferon). Pre-amplification did not change the number of retrieved aDNA sequences but 10 times out of 14 enzymatic repair restored the amplifiability of the genes analysed, proving that repair increases the rate of successful rescue from 22 to alpha(lambda)mu(omicron)sigma(tau) 80%. These findings support the hypothesis that some of these cross-linked aDNA mol

SUBMITTER: Di Bernardo G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC100355 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature