Identifying bird remains using ancient DNA barcoding

Love Dalén; Vendela K. Lagerholm; Johan A. A. Nylander; Nick Barton; Zbigniew M. Bochenski; Teresa Tomek; David Rudling; Per G. P. Ericson; Martin Irestedt; John R. Stewart

doi:10.3390/genes8060169

Identifying bird remains using ancient DNA barcoding

Love Dalén, Vendela K. Lagerholm, Johan A. A. Nylander, Nick Barton, Zbigniew M. Bochenski, Teresa Tomek, David Rudling, Per G. P. Ericson, Martin Irestedt, John R. Stewart^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Bird remains that are difficult to identify taxonomically using morphological methods, are common in the palaeontological record. Other types of challenging avian material include artefacts and food items from endangered taxa, as well as remains from aircraft strikes. We here present a DNA-based method that enables taxonomic identification of bird remains, even from material where the DNA is heavily degraded. The method is based on the amplification and sequencing of two short variable parts of the 16S region in the mitochondrial genome. To demonstrate the applicability of this approach, we evaluated the method on a set of Holocene and Late Pleistocene postcranial bird bones from several palaeontological and archaeological sites in Europe with good success.

Original language	English
Article number	169
Number of pages	8
Journal	Genes
Volume	8
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/genes8060169
Publication status	Published - 21 Jun 2017

Keywords

16S
Archaeology
Aves
Biodiversity
Palaeogenetics
Palaeontology
Species identification

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10.3390/genes8060169Licence: CC BY

Lagerholm_2017_Genes_BirdRemains_CC
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Accepted author manuscript, 230 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Identifying bird remains using ancient DNA barcoding",

abstract = "Bird remains that are difficult to identify taxonomically using morphological methods, are common in the palaeontological record. Other types of challenging avian material include artefacts and food items from endangered taxa, as well as remains from aircraft strikes. We here present a DNA-based method that enables taxonomic identification of bird remains, even from material where the DNA is heavily degraded. The method is based on the amplification and sequencing of two short variable parts of the 16S region in the mitochondrial genome. To demonstrate the applicability of this approach, we evaluated the method on a set of Holocene and Late Pleistocene postcranial bird bones from several palaeontological and archaeological sites in Europe with good success.",

keywords = "16S, Archaeology, Aves, Biodiversity, Palaeogenetics, Palaeontology, Species identification",

author = "Love Dal{\'e}n and Lagerholm, {Vendela K.} and Nylander, {Johan A. A.} and Nick Barton and Bochenski, {Zbigniew M.} and Teresa Tomek and David Rudling and Ericson, {Per G. P.} and Martin Irestedt and Stewart, {John R.}",

note = "This project was made possible through a grant (SE-TAF-3037) to J.R.S. from the EU-funded SYNTHESYS project. L.D. also acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council.",

year = "2017",

month = jun,

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doi = "10.3390/genes8060169",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Identifying bird remains using ancient DNA barcoding

AU - Dalén, Love

AU - Lagerholm, Vendela K.

AU - Nylander, Johan A. A.

AU - Barton, Nick

AU - Bochenski, Zbigniew M.

AU - Tomek, Teresa

AU - Rudling, David

AU - Ericson, Per G. P.

AU - Irestedt, Martin

AU - Stewart, John R.

N1 - This project was made possible through a grant (SE-TAF-3037) to J.R.S. from the EU-funded SYNTHESYS project. L.D. also acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council.

PY - 2017/6/21

Y1 - 2017/6/21

N2 - Bird remains that are difficult to identify taxonomically using morphological methods, are common in the palaeontological record. Other types of challenging avian material include artefacts and food items from endangered taxa, as well as remains from aircraft strikes. We here present a DNA-based method that enables taxonomic identification of bird remains, even from material where the DNA is heavily degraded. The method is based on the amplification and sequencing of two short variable parts of the 16S region in the mitochondrial genome. To demonstrate the applicability of this approach, we evaluated the method on a set of Holocene and Late Pleistocene postcranial bird bones from several palaeontological and archaeological sites in Europe with good success.

AB - Bird remains that are difficult to identify taxonomically using morphological methods, are common in the palaeontological record. Other types of challenging avian material include artefacts and food items from endangered taxa, as well as remains from aircraft strikes. We here present a DNA-based method that enables taxonomic identification of bird remains, even from material where the DNA is heavily degraded. The method is based on the amplification and sequencing of two short variable parts of the 16S region in the mitochondrial genome. To demonstrate the applicability of this approach, we evaluated the method on a set of Holocene and Late Pleistocene postcranial bird bones from several palaeontological and archaeological sites in Europe with good success.

KW - 16S

KW - Archaeology

KW - Aves

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Palaeogenetics

KW - Palaeontology

KW - Species identification

UR - http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/8/6/169#supplementary

U2 - 10.3390/genes8060169

DO - 10.3390/genes8060169

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85021214973

SN - 2073-4425

VL - 8

JO - Genes

JF - Genes

IS - 6

M1 - 169

ER -

Identifying bird remains using ancient DNA barcoding

Abstract

Keywords

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