Extracting+DNA+from+Woolly+Mammoth+Hair


 * @Woolly Mammoth Hair Woolly Mammoth Hair**

**//__Summary of “DNA Extracted from Woolly Mammoth Hair” __//** 

On September 27, 2007 it was reported in the Science Daily that a great discovery relating and to hair and DNA had been made. Scientist realized that the best source of ancient DNA is more accessible by hair than by bones or muscles! This amazed Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller of Penn State, working with Thomas Gilbert from Copernhagen and a large international consortium. On September 28, 2007 a journal published a paper that contained information about sequencing the entire mitochondrial genomes from 10 different woolly mammoths. It was discovered form the hair of ten woolly mammoths that the dates of death spanned about 38,000 years ago. Previous to this discovery only seven mitochondrial genomes from extinct animals had been published: four from ancient birds, two from mammoths and one from a mastodon. Schuster explained that the DNA from bones and muscle that were preserved and uncontaminated was very limited and it could take up to six years of recovery and research to study a single ancient animal. Amazing once her had received data from the genome sequencer it only took five minutes to assemble the entire mitochondrial genome. The reason the DNA has preserved is because of keratin in hair and protects the hair from outside influences and can be cleaned easily. Miller described the hair shafts as, “DNA encased in a kind of biological plastic”. Another interesting discovery was made, the hair shafts contain enriched with mitochondrial and can be used to do further study of genetic diversity of a population. Schuster reveals a dream about molecular-genomic-analysis data from specimens stored in collections of Charles Darwin, Alexander von Humboldt and Carl von Linne.

Dara Slater

March 13, 2010