Abstract
DNA isolated from ancient bones and teeth comprises a mixture of microbial contamination and DNA from the organism under study. In addition, analyses of ancient human remains are often complicated by contamination with present-day human DNA, which can be introduced during excavation and subsequent handling of the specimens. In most cases, the relative abundance of contaminant DNA is much greater than that of the target organism. Here we present two techniques for reducing the proportion of contaminant DNA in bones and teeth. The first and most efficient technique uses a sodium hypochlorite (bleach) pretreatment to destroy contaminant DNA that may be bound or otherwise attached to the surface of bone/tooth powder. The second, less destructive pretreatment uses a phosphate buffer to release surface-bound DNA.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Kemp BM, Smith DG (2005) Use of bleach to eliminate contaminating DNA from the surface of bones and teeth. Forensic Sci Int 154(1):53–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.11.017
Barta JL, Monroe C, Kemp BM (2013) Further evaluation of the efficacy of contamination removal from bone surfaces. Forensic Sci Int 231(1–3):340–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2013.06.004
Salamon M, Tuross N, Arensburg B, Weiner S (2005) Relatively well preserved DNA is present in the crystal aggregates of fossil bones. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102(39):13783–13788. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0503718102
Malmström H, Svensson EM, Gilbert MTP, Willerslev E, Götherström A, Holmlund G (2007) More on contamination: the use of asymmetric molecular behavior to identify authentic ancient human DNA. Mol Biol Evol 24(4):998–1004. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msm015
GarcÃa-Garcerà M, Gigli E, Sanchez-Quinto F, Ramirez O, Calafell F, Civit S, Lalueza-Fox C (2011) Fragmentation of contaminant and endogenous DNA in ancient samples determined by shotgun sequencing; prospects for human palaeogenomics. PLoS One 6(8):e24161. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024161
Korlević P, Gerber T, Gansauge MT, Hajdinjak M, Nagel S, Aximu-Petri A, Meyer M (2015) Reducing microbial and human contamination in DNA extractions from ancient bones and teeth. BioTechniques 59(2):87–93. https://doi.org/10.2144/000114320
Bernardi G (1965) Chromatography of nucleic acids on hydroxyapatite. Nature 206(4986):779–783. https://doi.org/10.1038/206779a0
Grunenwald A, Keyser C, Sautereau AM, Crubézy E, Ludes B, Drouet C (2014) Adsorption of DNA on biomimetic apatites: toward the understanding of the role of bone and tooth mineral on the preservation of ancient DNA. Appl Surf Sci 292:867–875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.12.063
Persson P (1992) A method to recover DNA from ancient bones. Ancient DNA Newsl 1:25–27
Götherström A, Lidén K (1996) A modified DNA extraction method for bone and teeth. Laborativ Arkeologi 9:53–56
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Korlević, P., Meyer, M. (2019). Pretreatment: Removing DNA Contamination from Ancient Bones and Teeth Using Sodium Hypochlorite and Phosphate. 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_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9176-1_2
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