Archaeogenetics

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The archaeogenetics deals with the study of the genetic material of humans and of animals and plants to insights into the evolution of winning. Samples of cultivated plants , domestic animals and humans are taken into account, which come from ancient DNA from archaeological finds as well as from living beings and plants of today. With the means of molecular biology , for example, prehistoric processes such as the development and spread of agriculture can be reconstructed. The term archaeogenetics was coined byColin Renfrew .

Emergence

The branch of research in archaeogenetics goes back to the studies of human blood groups by Ludwik and Hanka Hirszfeld , William Boyd and Arthur Mourant . For a long time, Luca Cavalli-Sforza studied blood groups with regard to the prehistoric population of Europe and published the results in his book The History and Geography of Human Genes ( ISBN 978-0-691-08750-4 ) in 1994 . The decisive breakthrough came from New Zealander Allan Wilson , who analyzed the genetic material using molecular biology. In 1967 he came through chromosome en hybridizations to conclude that humans and chimpanzees split from each other only about 6 million years ago. In 1987 and 1991 he then presented mitochondrial Eve , i.e. i.e., the ancestor of all maternal lines that exist today, reconstructed on the basis of mitochondrial DNA . According to Wilson's family tree, this woman lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

Research by Peter Forster , Arne Roehl and colleagues since 1995 has confirmed the assumption that only one single group of people successfully emigrated from Africa, and that only 50,000 years ago. It is still unclear why other prehistoric African groups failed to cross sea to the rest of the world either before or after. Since then, the genetic history of all major domesticated animals (such as cattle , sheep , pigs , horses ) and plants (such as wheat , rice , corn ) has been studied. Again, this was mainly based on the DNA of the mitochondria. In mammals (including humans), the DNA of the Y chromosome has recently been used for genetic analysis. They allow the male lineage to be traced back ( Adam of the Y chromosome ).

Non- recombining sections of the DNA provide genealogical trees of direct lineages that can be geographically assigned when the appropriate statistical methods are used .

criticism

Investigations on old DNA (aDNA) are often viewed with skepticism because they are rarely reproducible. Often the finds are one-off and sometimes no comparative material is available. The quantities are also very small, so that there are only a limited number of test methods. In some investigation methods, the starting material is changed or even destroyed. There is always the risk that the test results will be falsified by contamination with foreign, recent DNA. A 2004 research report summarized the concerns and was intended to call for special precautions to be taken with aDNA analysis.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AC Renfrew, KV Boyle, (Eds): Archaeogenetics: DNA and the population prehistory of Europe. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2000.
  2. ↑ Avise, JC, J. Arnold, RM Ball, Jr., E. Bermingham, T. Lamb, JE Neigel, CA Reed, and NC Saunders: Intraspecific phylogeography: the mitochondrial DNA bridge between population genetics and systematics . In: Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics . 18, 1987, pp. 489-522. doi : 10.1146 / annurev.es.18.110187.002421 .
  3. ↑ Svante Pääbo , Hendrik Poinar, David Serre, Viviane Jaenicke-Després, Juliane Hebler, Nadin Rohland, Melanie Kuch, Johannes Krause, Linda Vigilant, Michael Hofreiter: Genetic analyzes from ancient DNA . In: Annual Review of Genetics. Volume 38, December 2004, pp. 645-679, doi: 10.1146 / annurev.genet.37.110801.143214 .