Collaboration – ancient DNA

Matthias Meyer Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig

In the last few years, increasing numbers of DNA sequences have become available from ancient hominins, including full genomes from Neandertals, Denisovans and early modern humans. Unfortunately, no human DNA older than ~15,000 years has been recovered from Africa due to the nonoptimal climatic conditions for long-term DNA preservation and the scarcity of hominin remains. Our recent discovery of the preservation of ancient hominin DNA in cave sediments now opens the opportunity to attempt DNA retrieval from many more sites and archaeological layers than was previously possible. This work can also take place without destruction of precious hominin fossils. We hope that the analysis of sediment DNA will ultimately make it possible to study hominin evolution and dispersals by means of genetic analysis of archaeological sites across the African continent. Working on cave sediments from the SapienCE archaeological sites is an important first step towards this goal. SapienCE also makes it possible to interpret our genetic analyses within a comprehensive multi-disciplinary investigation of human evolution.