Woodward S R, Weyand N J, Bunnell M
Department of Microbiology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602.
Science. 1994 Nov 18;266(5188):1229-32. doi: 10.1126/science.7973705.
DNA was extracted from 80-million-year-old bone fragments found in strata of the Upper Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation in the roof of an underground coal mine in eastern Utah. This DNA was used as the template in a polymerase chain reaction that amplified and sequenced a portion of the gene encoding mitochondrial cytochrome b. These sequences differ from all other cytochrome b sequences investigated, including those in the GenBank and European Molecular Biology Laboratory databases. DNA isolated from these bone fragments and the resulting gene sequences demonstrate that small fragments of DNA may survive in bone for millions of years.
从犹他州东部一个地下煤矿顶板的上白垩统黑鹰组地层中发现的8000万年前的骨碎片中提取了DNA。该DNA被用作聚合酶链反应的模板，该反应扩增并测序了编码线粒体细胞色素b的基因的一部分。这些序列不同于所有其他已研究的细胞色素b序列，包括GenBank和欧洲分子生物学实验室数据库中的序列。从这些骨碎片中分离出的DNA以及由此产生的基因序列表明，DNA小片段可能在骨骼中存活数百万年。
