Citation

What controls for the new era of high-throuput sequencing in ancient DNA?

Debruyne Régis.

CAPA/ACAP Newsletter 2009(1):14.

Abstract

The advent of polymerase chain reaction at the end of the 1980s provoked a first revolution in ancient DNA studies, with the numerous successes and as many pitfalls known from the past decade, generally caused by false positive identification of non-authentic DNA. The specialists of ancient DNA have responded to those pitfalls by the creation of a wide set of proper controls which have been diversely appreciated and followed with time. With the opening of a new era of high-throuput sequencing, the field of ancient DNA now stands at the dawn of a second revolution. However, once again, the development of these 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.