Tid: Onsdag d. 9. juni 2004
Kl.: 20.00
Sted: Auditorium 1
August Krogh Instituttet
Universitetsparken 13
2100 København Ø
1896-2004
Ancient DNA Tells Stories of
Extinct Animals, Lost Ecosystems
and Ancient Viking Kings
Jonas Binladen
Department of Evolutionary Biology. Institute of Biology
University of Copenhagen
In the past two decades ancient DNA (aDNA) research have progressed from simple
sequence retrieval of short mitochondrial sequences to complete mitochondrial genomes,
retrieval of nuclear loci, massive population studies of extinct species and detailed
ecosystem reconstructions based on DNA preserved in soil.
The talk will include general aspects of aDNA research and present work done at
Zoological Institute (KU); this includes (I) Maternity test of 1000 years old royal Vikings.
(II) Reconstruction of 10-350.000 years old ecosystems (plants and mammals) using 2g
sediment samples. (III) Analysis of nuclear DNA from extinct Moa birds revealing extreme
sexual dimorphism resulting in a redefinition of morphologically defined species.
Bunce M, Worthy TH, Ford T, Hoppitt W, Willerslev E, Drummond A, Cooper A. (2003) Extreme reversed
sexual size dimorphism in the extinct New Zealand moa Dinornis. Nature, 425, 172-175. Willerslev E,
Hansen AJ,Binladen J, Brand TB, Gilbert MT, Shapiro B, Bunce, M, Wiuf C, Gilichinsky, DA, Cooper A.
(2003) Diverse plant and animal genetic records from Holocene and Pleistocene sediments. Science. 300,
791-795. Hofreiter M, Serre D, Poinar HN, Kuch M, Paabo S. (2001) Ancient DNA. Nat. Rev Genet. 5,
353-359. Hofreiter M, Poinar HN, Spaulding WG, Bauer K, Martin PS, Possnert G, Paabo S. (2000) A
molecular analysis of ground sloth diet through the last glaciation. Mol. Ecol. 12, 1975-1984.
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Mødeleder: Jens Høiriis Nielsen, Tel.: 3532 7721, E-mail: jhn@imbg.ku.dk