Nuclear counterparts of the cytoplasmic mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene: a problem of ancient DNA and molecular phylogenies.

Monkey mummy bones and teeth originating from the North Saqqara Baboon Galleries (Egypt), soft tissue from a mummified baboon in a museum collection, and nineteenth/twentieth-century skin fragments from mangabeys were used for DNA extraction and PCR amplification of part of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene. Sequences aligning with the 12S rRNA gene were recovered but were only distantly related to contemporary monkey mitochondrial 12S rRNA sequences. However, many of these sequences were identical or closely related to human nuclear DNA sequences resembling mitochondrial 12S rRNA (isolated from a cell line depleted in mitochondria) and therefore have to be considered contamination.

Recovery and identification of DNA sequences harboured in preserved ancient human bones.

A new method is presented to extract and identify specific DNA fragments from well preserved human bones, dating from three different time periods. Bone samples were thoroughly freed from surfacial contaminating DNA. Access to the inner bone spongiosum was achieved by removing the covering bone layers of the vertebra or sternum, whereas the patella, tibia and caput of the femur or humerus were cleaved with an iron saw.

Extraction of osteocalcin from fossil bones and teeth.

Osteocalcin (also called 'bone Gla-protein') was detected in fossil bovid bones ranging from 12,000 years to 13 million years old and in rodent teeth 30 million years old. Both the antigenic activity and the protein-bound Gla-residues have remained intact. The protein is indistinguishable from recent bovine osteocalcin when analyzed by HPLC using ion exchange and size exclusion columns.