Density separation of petrous bone powders for optimized ancient DNA yields.

ABSTRACT: Density separation is a process routinely used to segregate minerals, organic matter, and even microplastics, from soils and sediments. Here we apply density separation to archaeological bone powders before DNA extraction to increase endogenous DNA recovery relative to a standard control extraction of the same powders. Using nontoxic heavy liquid solutions, we separated powders from the petrous bones of 10 individuals of similar archaeological preservation into eight density intervals (2.15 to 2.45 g/cm³, in 0.05 increments). We found that the 2.30 to 2.35 g/cm³ and 2.35 to 2.40 g/cm³ intervals yielded up to 5.28-fold more endogenous unique DNA than the corresponding standard extraction (and up to 8.53-fold before duplicate read removal), while maintaining

SUBMITTER: Fernandes DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10234301 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature