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Ancient DNA pp 45–55Cite as

Extraction of Ancient DNA from Plant Remains

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1963))

Abstract

Ancient plant remains from archaeological sites, paleoenvironmental contexts, and herbaria provide excellent opportunities for interrogating plant genetics over Quaternary timescales using ancient DNA (aDNA)-based analyses. A variety of plant tissues, preserved primarily by desiccation and anaerobic waterlogging, have proven to be viable sources of aDNA. Plant tissues are anatomically and chemically diverse and therefore require optimized DNA extraction approaches. Here, we describe a plant DNA isolation protocol that performs well in most contexts. We include recommendations for optimization to retain the very short DNA fragments that are expected to be preserved in degraded tissues.

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Acknowledgments

N.W. was supported by the National Science Foundation (Award number DEB-1354622).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Nathan Wales

  2. Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology and Image Synthesis, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

    Nathan Wales

  3. Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

    Logan Kistler

  4. Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK

    Nathan Wales

Authors
  1. Nathan Wales
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  2. Logan Kistler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Logan Kistler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Beth Shapiro

  2. Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Axel Barlow

  3. Tromsø University Museum, UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    Peter D. Heintzman

  4. Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Michael Hofreiter

  5. Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Johanna L. A. Paijmans

  6. Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    André E. R. Soares

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Wales, N., Kistler, L. (2019). Extraction of Ancient DNA from Plant Remains. In: Shapiro, B., Barlow, A., Heintzman, P., Hofreiter, M., Paijmans, J., Soares, A. (eds) Ancient DNA. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1963. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9176-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9176-1_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9175-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9176-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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