Improved detection of methylation in ancient DNA
Reconstructing premortem DNA methylation levels in ancient DNA has led to breakthrough studies such as the prediction of anatomical features of the Denisovan. These studies rely on computationally inferring methylation levels from damage signals in naturally deaminated cytosines, which requires expensive high-coverage genomes. Here, we test two methods for direct methylation measurement developed for modern DNA based on either bisulfite or enzymatic methylation treatments. Bisulfite treatment shows the least reduction in DNA yields as well as the least biases during methylation conversion, demonstrating that this method can be successfully applied to ancient DNA.
Authors
- Christine Neugebauer-Maresch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3138-2385)
- Liran Carmel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0225-8550)
- Ildikó Pap (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6601-1616)
- Eran Meshorer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4777-986X)
- Gunita Zariņa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7769-4341)
- Ron Pinhasi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1629-8131)
- Mario Novak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4567-8742)
- Alejandro Llanos-Lizcano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7579-3573)
- Susanna Sawyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8477-6089)
- Pere Gelabert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3019-0725)
- Vyacheslav Moiseyev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1748-2686)
- Andrey Gromov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3263-3801)
- Benjamin Yakir
- Olivia Cheronet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6760-1204)
- Ildikó Szikossy
- Tamás Hajdu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3604-1125)
- Maria Teschler‐Nicola (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3080-3085)
- Luca Bondioli
- Alessandra Sperduti
Institutions
- Eötvös Loránd University (HU)
- University of Primorska (SI)
- University of Naples - L'Orientale (IT)
- Natural History Museum Vienna (AT)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Austrian Academy of Sciences (AT)
- University of Padua (IT)
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- University of Szeged (HU)
- University of Atlántico (CO)
- Hungarian Natural History Museum (HU)
- Institute of Human Sciences (AT)
- Institute for Anthropological Research (HR)
- Peter the Great's Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (RU)
- Museo Egizio (IT)
- University of Latvia (LV)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Genome biology
- Published
- 2024-10-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-024-03405-5
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Forensic and Genetic Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.20
Funders
- Austrian Science Fund
- Universität Wien
- Israel Science Foundation
- Fundación para el futuro de Colombia