Griffith School of Environment and School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia.
PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e50732. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050732. Epub 2013 Jan 16.
Analysis of ancient DNA has provided invaluable information on past ecologies, ancient populations, and extinct species. We used a short snippet of highly variable mitochondrial control region sequence from New Zealand's moa to characterise a large number of bones previously intractable to DNA analysis as well as bone fragments from swamps to gain information about the haplotype diversity and phylogeography that existed in five moa species.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By targeting such 'snippets', we show that moa populations differed substantially in geographic structure that is likely to be related to population mobility and history. We show that populations of Pachyornis geranoides, Dinornis novaezealandiae, and Dinornis robustus were highly structured and some appear to have occupied the same geographic location for hundreds of thousands of years. In contrast, populations of the moa Anomalopteryx didiformis and Euryapteryx curtus were widespread, with specific populations of the latter occupying both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. We further show that for a specific area, in this case a North Island swamp, complete haplotype diversity and even sex can be recovered from collections of small, often discarded, bone fragments.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Short highly variable mitochondrial 'snippets' allow successful typing of environmentally damaged and fragmented skeletal material, and can provide useful information about ancient population diversity and structure without the need to sample valuable, whole bones often held by museums.
对古代 DNA 的分析为过去的生态、古代种群和已灭绝的物种提供了宝贵的信息。我们使用了新西兰恐鸟高度变异的线粒体控制区序列的一小段片段，对以前无法进行 DNA 分析的大量骨骼以及来自沼泽的骨骼碎片进行了特征分析，以了解存在于五种恐鸟物种中的单倍型多样性和系统地理学信息。
方法/主要发现：通过靶向这种“片段”，我们表明恐鸟种群在地理结构上存在显著差异，这可能与种群的流动性和历史有关。我们表明，Pachyornis geranoides、Dinornis novaezealandiae 和 Dinornis robustus 的种群结构高度复杂，有些种群似乎已经在同一地理位置存在了数十万年。相比之下，Anomalopteryx didiformis 和 Euryapteryx curtus 的恐鸟种群分布广泛，后者的特定种群同时占据了新西兰的北岛和南岛。我们进一步表明，对于特定区域，在这种情况下是北岛的沼泽，从小的、经常被丢弃的骨骼碎片中可以完全恢复出特定区域的单倍型多样性，甚至性别信息。
结论/意义：短的高度变异的线粒体“片段”允许对环境受损和碎片化的骨骼材料进行成功的分型，并且可以在不需要采样博物馆通常持有的有价值的完整骨骼的情况下，提供有关古代种群多样性和结构的有用信息。
