Revolutions and crises in Ancient DNA
Citation
Revolutions and crises in Ancient DNA: at the dawn of large-scale paleogenomics, what have we learnt from our previous mistakes?
Régis Debruyne
In Program and Abstracts of The International Meeting of the French Network of Paleogenetics “Ancient DNA : from mitochondrial to nuclear DNA, from the evolution of populations to the selection of characters”, IJM, Paris:14
Published Abstract
The implementation of molecular cloning and the advent of polymerase chain reaction have provoked what can be seen as two successive revolutions in ancient DNA studies. Despite numerous successes during those first two decades, the field has long been plagued by unsupported results, generally caused by false positive identification of non-authentic DNA. Some specialists of ancient DNA have responded to those pitfalls by the creation of a wide set of proper controls which have been diversely appreciated, causing a schism between the groups whether following those guidelines or not.
With the opening in 2005 of a new era of large-scale paleogenomics using high-throuput sequencing, the field of ancient DNA has been standing at the dawn of a third revolution. Once again, the development of its underlying new technologies is accompanied by its own limitations, the critical analysis of which has already led to controversial conclusions. Here we select a few of those controversial outcomes and praise for the establishment of a new set of controls, adapted to the safe study of ancient DNA using high-throuput sequencing technologies.
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