Metagenomics to Paleogenomics: Large-Scale Sequencing of Mammoth DNA
Abstract
We sequenced 28 million base pairs of DNA in a metagenomics approach, using a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) sample from Siberia. As a result of exceptional sample preservation and the use of a recently developed emulsion polymerase chain reaction and pyrosequencing technique, 13 million base pairs (45.4%) of the sequencing reads were identified as mammoth DNA. Sequence identity between our data and African elephant (Loxodonta africana) was 98.55%, consistent with a paleontologically based divergence date of 5 to 6 million years. The sample includes a surprisingly small diversity of environmental DNAs. The high percentage of endogenous DNA recoverable from this single mammoth would allow for completion of its genome, unleashing the field of paleogenomics.
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We thank D. Poinar, C. Flemming, and E. Willerslev for help in mammoth sampling; N. E. Wittekindt and A. Rambaut for help with the manuscript; and two anonymous reviewers. We also thank the Natural Sciences and Environmental Research Council of Canada (299103-2004) for a grant to H.N.P. and McMaster University for financial support. R.D.E.M. was supported by NSF OPP 0117400, B.S. was supported by the Wellcome Trust, and W.M. was supported by NIH grant HG02238. S.C.S. thanks The Pennsylvania State University for initial funding.
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Science
Volume 311 | Issue 5759
20 January 2006
20 January 2006
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American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Received: 2 December 2005
Accepted: 15 December 2005
Published in print: 20 January 2006
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