Abstract
DNA has been successfully extracted from several samples of preserved tissue, the oldest so far reported originating from a 13,000-year-old ground sloth1.But severe damage to the preserved DNA, primarily due to oxidation of the pyrimidines1, has prevented the acquisition of sequence data from ancient samples except in a few cases2–4. We report here the extraction of DNA from fossil leaf samples from the Miocene Clarkia deposit (17-20 My r old), the amplification of an 820-base pair (bp) DNA fragment from the chloroplast gene rbcL from a fossil of the genus Magnolia, and its subsequent sequencing. The sequence was verified by comparison with published and unpublished rbcL sequences. These results extend our ability to analyse ancient DNA and may open new avenues into problems in palaeobotany, biogeography, and in the calibration of mutation rates.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Paabo, S. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci U.S.A. 86, 1939–1943 (1989).
Paabo, S. Nature 314, 644–645 (1985).
Paabo, S., Gifford, J. A. & Wilson, A. C. Nucleic Acids Res. 16, 9775–9787 (1988).
Higuchi, R., Bowman, B., Friedberger, M., Ryder, O. A. & Wilson, A. C. Nature 312, 282–284 (1984).
Smiley, C. J. (ed.) Late Cenozoic History of the Pacific Northwest. (AAAS, San Francisco, California. 1985).
Niklas, K. J. in Advances in Phytochemistry (eds Reinhold, L., Harborne, J. B. & Swain, T.) 4, 143–181 (Academic, London, 1980).
Niklas, K. J. in Organic Maturation Studies and Fossil Fuel Exploration (ed. Brooks, J.) 111–144 (Academic, London, 1981).
Niklas, K. J. in Biochemical Aspects of Evolutionary Biology (ed. Nitecki, M. H.) 29–91 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1982).
Niklas, K. J., Brown, R. M., Jr & Santos, R. in Late Cenozoic History of the Pacific Northwest (ed. Smiley, C. J.) 143–159 (AAAS, San Francisco, 1985).
Rogers, S. O. & Bendich, A. J. Plant molec. Biol. 5, 69–76 (1985).
Zurawski, G., Clegg, M. T. & Brown, A. H. D. Genetics 106, 735–749 (1984).
Shinozaki, K. et al. EMBO J. 5, 2043–2049 (1986).
Krebbers, E. T., Larrinua, I. M., Mclntosh, L. & Bogorad, L. Nucleic Acids Res. 10, 4985–5002 (1982).
Hiratsuka, J. et al. Molec gen. Genet. 217, 185–194 (1989).
Hattori, M. & Sakaki, Y. Analyt. Biochem. 152, 232–238 (1986).
Kimura, M. Proc. natn. Acad Sci. U.S.A. 78, 454–458 (1981).
Felsenstein, J. PHYLIP 3.2 Manual (University of California Herbarium, Berkeley, California, 1989).
Kishino, H. & Hasegawa, M. J. molec. Evol. 29, 170–179 (1989).
Lamppa, G. K., Elliot, L. V. & Bendich, A. J. Planta 148, 437–443 (1980).
Smith, G. R. & Elder, R. L. in Late Cenozoic History of the Pacific Northwest (ed. Smiley, C. J.) 85–93 (AAAS, San Francisco, 1985).
Giannasi, D. E. & Niklas, K. J. Science 197, 765–767 (1977).
Giannasi, D. E. & Niklas, K. J. Am. J. Bot. 68, 762–770 (1981).
Giannasi, D. E. & Niklas, K. J. in Late Canozoic History of the Pacific Northwest (ed. Smiley, C. J.) 161–174 (AAAS, San Francisco, 1985).
Rieseberg, L. H. & Soltis, D. E. Biochem. Syst. Ecol. 15, 109–112 (1987).
Lin, C. M., Liu, Z. Q. & Kung, S. D. Plant molec. Biol. 6, 81–87 (1986)
Aldrich, J., Cherney, B., Merlin, E. & Palmer, J. Nucleic Acids Res. 14, 9534 (1986).
Zurawski, G., Perrot, B., Bottomley, W. & Whitfeld, P. R. Nucleic Acids Res. 9, 3251 (1981).
Aldrich, J., Cherney, B., Merlin, E. & Palmer, J. Nucleic Acids Res. 14, 9535 (1986).
Zurawski, G., Whitfeld, P. R. & Bottomley, W. Nucleic Acids Res, 14, 3975–3976 (1986).
Kreitman, M. & Landweber, L. F. Gene analyt. Techno 6, 84–88 (1989).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Golenberg, E., Giannasi, D., Clegg, M. et al. Chloroplast DNA sequence from a Miocene Magnolia species. Nature 344, 656–658 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/344656a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/344656a0
This article is cited by
-
Ancient genetics to ancient genomics: celebrity and credibility in data-driven practice
Biology & Philosophy (2019)
-
Biodiversity in targeted metabolomics analysis of filamentous fungal pathogens by 1H NMR-based studies
World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology (2017)
-
Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte der aDNA-Forschung
NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin (2017)
-
Chloroplast genomes: diversity, evolution, and applications in genetic engineering
Genome Biology (2016)
-
Re-inventing ancient human DNA
Investigative Genetics (2015)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.