Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany;
Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia 5042, Australia;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Jan 4;119(1). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2113666118.
Ancient DNA recovered from Pleistocene sediments represents a rich resource for the study of past hominin and environmental diversity. However, little is known about how DNA is preserved in sediments and the extent to which it may be translocated between archaeological strata. Here, we investigate DNA preservation in 47 blocks of resin-impregnated archaeological sediment collected over the last four decades for micromorphological analyses at 13 prehistoric sites in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and show that such blocks can preserve DNA of hominins and other mammals. Extensive microsampling of sediment blocks from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains reveals that the taxonomic composition of mammalian DNA differs drastically at the millimeter-scale and that DNA is concentrated in small particles, especially in fragments of bone and feces (coprolites), suggesting that these are substantial sources of DNA in sediments. Three microsamples taken in close proximity in one of the blocks yielded Neanderthal DNA from at least two male individuals closely related to , a Neanderthal toe bone previously recovered from the same layer. Our work indicates that DNA can remain stably localized in sediments over time and provides a means of linking genetic information to the archaeological and ecological records on a microstratigraphic scale.
从更新世沉积物中回收的古代 DNA 为研究过去人类和环境的多样性提供了丰富的资源。然而，人们对 DNA 在沉积物中的保存方式以及它在多大程度上可能在考古地层之间迁移知之甚少。在这里，我们调查了在过去四十年中为了在欧洲、亚洲、非洲和北美的 13 个史前遗址进行微观形态分析而收集的 47 块树脂浸渍的考古沉积物块中的 DNA 保存情况，并表明这些块可以保存人类和其他哺乳动物的 DNA。对阿尔泰山脉丹尼索瓦洞穴中的沉积物块进行广泛的微采样表明，哺乳动物 DNA 的分类组成在毫米尺度上差异很大，并且 DNA 集中在小颗粒中，特别是在骨碎片和粪便（粪化石）中，这表明这些是沉积物中 DNA 的主要来源。在其中一个块体中近距离采集的三个微样本来自至少两个与 密切相关的男性个体的尼安德特人 DNA，这是一个此前从同一层中回收的尼安德特人脚趾骨。我们的工作表明，DNA 可以在长时间内稳定地定位于沉积物中，并提供了一种将遗传信息与微观地层尺度上的考古和生态记录联系起来的方法。
