Catching the Past, using ancient DNA to obtain long-term perspectives
13:00 – 14:00
Researcher
Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis
Department of Biosciences (UiO)
Abstract
Ancient DNA (aDNA) is a valuable resource that creates a wide range of opportunities to learn about and from the past. We use genome-wide aDNA to answer both evolutionary and archaeological questions with a focus on human impacts in past ecosystems. Such genome-wide aDNA data can be challenging and expensive to obtain, as levels of endogenous DNA from the samples of interest is often low, requiring significant sequencing effort to obtain sufficient data. Nonetheless, through several examples I show how even low-coverage aDNA sequencing data can be used to yield novel insights in past patterns of human exploitation and trade.
Herbarium genomics, DNA fragmentation and damage: getting archival plant DNA to work
14:00 – 15:00
Assistant Professor
Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands
Abstract
Apart from providing an important taxonomic reference, herbarium collections provide a wealth of data for testing historic biological hypotheses. What also has become clear, is that herbarium collections are a great source of DNA. Given 2nd generation sequencing technology it turns out that obstacles known from the 'PCR era' are now readily overcome using massive parallel sequencing. I will discuss some examples of how we produce plastome sequences from archival, historic herbarium and evaluate what kind of DNA damage may be in there. For instance, genomic fractionation in herbarium DNA could possibly be non-random and consistent with a higher-order kinetics.
