Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA; email:
Department of Natural History, NTNU University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway; email:
Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2020 Apr 29;71:605-629. doi: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-081519-035837. Epub 2020 Mar 2.
The ancient DNA revolution of the past 35 years has driven an explosion in the breadth, nuance, and diversity of questions that are approachable using ancient biomolecules, and plant research has been a constant, indispensable facet of these developments. Using archaeological, paleontological, and herbarium plant tissues, researchers have probed plant domestication and dispersal, plant evolution and ecology, paleoenvironmental composition and dynamics, and other topics across related disciplines. Here, we review the development of the ancient DNA discipline and the role of plant research in its progress and refinement. We summarize our understanding of long-term plant DNA preservation and the characteristics of degraded DNA. In addition, we discuss challenges in ancient DNA recovery and analysis and the laboratory and bioinformatic strategies used to mitigate them. Finally, we review recent applications of ancient plant genomic research.
过去 35 年的古 DNA 革命推动了使用古代生物分子可解决的问题的广度、细微差别和多样性的爆炸式增长，而植物研究一直是这些发展的一个不变的、不可或缺的方面。研究人员利用考古学、古生物学和植物标本室的植物组织，探究了植物驯化和传播、植物进化和生态学、古环境组成和动态等相关学科的其他主题。在这里，我们回顾了古 DNA 学科的发展以及植物研究在其进展和完善中的作用。我们总结了我们对长期植物 DNA 保存以及降解 DNA 特征的理解。此外，我们还讨论了古 DNA 回收和分析中的挑战，以及用于减轻这些挑战的实验室和生物信息学策略。最后，我们回顾了最近古植物基因组研究的应用。
