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Memories of mammoths

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  • Henry Gee

Abstract

Family ties Despite remarkable progress in the study of ancient DNA, the amount of continuous sequence retrievable from Late Pleistocene organisms is still limited. Segments of about 1,000 base pairs have been reconstructed for mammoths and a few other species, but that's often not much to go on when it comes to studying inter-species relationships. Now a new PCR-based method that makes clever use of sequence overlaps and multiple amplifications has made it possible to produce long DNA sequences from minute amounts of bone material. Starting from just 200 mg of bone, this method has generated the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a Pleistocene woolly mammoth preserved in permafrost, a total of over 16,000 base pairs. The sequence resolves a long-standing controversy over mammoth phylogeny, showing the woolly mammoth to be more closely related to the Asian elephant than to its African cousin.

Suggested Citation

  • Henry Gee, 2006. "Memories of mammoths," Nature, Nature, vol. 439(7077), pages 673-673, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:439:y:2006:i:7077:d:10.1038_439673a
    DOI: 10.1038/439673a
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