Identification of contaminating elements in ancient DNA research

Wu Ping, Cheng An-jin, Li Qing-wei, Liu Jin-yuan and Yang Qun

pp. 25-33, in English, with Chinese abstract

Abstract:

We obtained two mitochondrial 12S rRNA-like sequences from Pleistocene bones of horse and deer. Based on sequence comparison, these two sequences were neither close to that of human mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene, nor from that of horse or deer. Phylogenetic analysis shows that these two sequences are most close to the human nuclear DNA recently identified as the 12S rRNA gene counterpart. This result is important for identifying contamination from human nuclear DNA in ancient DNA research.

Keywords: Ancient DNA, contamination, nuclear 12S rRNA-like gene