Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50122, Florence, Italy.
Independent Researcher, Padova, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 25;11(1):6851. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86058-9.
Insects entombed in copal, the sub-fossilized resin precursor of amber, represent a potential source of genetic data for extinct and extant, but endangered or elusive, species. Despite several studies demonstrated that it is not possible to recover endogenous DNA from insect inclusions, the preservation of biomolecules in fossilized resins samples is still under debate. In this study, we tested the possibility of obtaining endogenous ancient DNA (aDNA) molecules from insects preserved in copal, applying experimental protocols specifically designed for aDNA recovery. We were able to extract endogenous DNA molecules from one of the two samples analyzed, and to identify the taxonomic status of the specimen. Even if the sample was found well protected from external contaminants, the recovered DNA was low concentrated and extremely degraded, compared to the sample age. We conclude that it is possible to obtain genomic data from resin-entombed organisms, although we discourage aDNA analysis because of the destructive method of extraction protocols and the non-reproducibility of the results.
被琥珀（由树脂石化而来的化石）封存的昆虫代表了已灭绝或现存的、但濒危或难以捉摸的物种的遗传数据的潜在来源。尽管有几项研究表明，从昆虫包埋物中不可能获得内源性 DNA，但生物分子在化石树脂样本中的保存仍存在争议。在这项研究中，我们应用专门设计用于 aDNA 回收的实验方案，测试了从琥珀中保存的昆虫中获得内源性远古 DNA（aDNA）分子的可能性。我们能够从分析的两个样本之一中提取内源性 DNA 分子，并确定标本的分类地位。即使该样本被发现受到很好的保护，免受外部污染物的侵害，但与样本年龄相比，回收的 DNA 浓度低且高度降解。我们的结论是，从树脂封存的生物体中获得基因组数据是可能的，尽管我们不鼓励进行 aDNA 分析，因为提取方案的破坏性方法和结果的不可重复性。
