Ancient DNA Analysis

Ancient DNA analysis recovers genetic information from the degraded remains of past organisms — human and animal bones and teeth, and increasingly sediments — and uses it to reconstruct kinship, ancestry, population history, sex, pathogens, and domestication. Because DNA fragments into ever-shorter pieces and accumulates characteristic chemical damage after death, and because a handful of modern molecules can swamp the few authentic ones, the field is defined less by sequencing itself than by an exacting protocol of clean-lab extraction, contamination control, and authentication. The foundational reviews by Svante Paabo and colleagues set out the principles that distinguish genuine ancient sequences from contaminants, and the move to next-generation sequencing transformed aDNA from a fragile curiosity into a routine source of genome-scale data.