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Ancient plant DNA in the genomic era

Nature Plants volume 4, pages 394–396 (2018)Cite this article

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Next-generation sequencing technologies have significantly changed the scope of ancient plant DNA research, moving from analysis of a few loci to generation of ancient genomes. Future research could refine our understanding of plant evolution and adaptation, and provide information for conservation, crop breeding and food security.

Studies in ancient plant DNA have lagged behind those of humans and vertebrate taxa3, although this is partly due to the lack of well-preserved samples suitable for aDNA research. Moreover, standard methods used in aDNA studies are not explicitly designed for botanical remains, and thus do not consider the intrinsic characteristics of plants. Lastly, studies in agricultural plant species, such as bread wheat, barley and maize, are hindered by factors including large genome sizes (2–16 Gbp), high composition of repetitive elements (60–90%) and diverse ploidy levels4.

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Fig. 1: Sub-fossilised plant macro-remains sources of ancient plant DNA.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Geoff Fincher and Matthew Gilliham from the University of Adelaide, Birger Lindberg-Møeller from the University of Copenhagen, and Birgitte Skadhauge from Carlsberg’s Research Laboratory. O.E. is supported by the Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia (COLCIENCIAS) and the University of Adelaide Graduate Centre. We thank Elizabeth Reed and Kathryn Hill from the University of Adelaide for providing the samples from Naracoorte Cave. We also thank Nelli Hovhannisyan from the Yerevan State University and Boris Gasparyan, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography for providing the samples from Areni-1 Cave.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Oscar Estrada, Stephen M. Richards & Alan Cooper

  2. Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    James Breen

  3. University of Adelaide Bioinformatics Hub, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    James Breen

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  1. Oscar Estrada
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  2. James Breen
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Correspondence to James Breen.

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Estrada, O., Breen, J., Richards, S.M. et al. Ancient plant DNA in the genomic era . Nature Plants 4, 394–396 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-018-0187-9

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