Ancient mitogenomics

Simon Y. W. Ho, Tom Gilbert

    Research output: Contribution to journalReviewResearchpeer-review

    55 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The mitochondrial genome has been the traditional focus of most research into ancient DNA, owing to its high copy number and population-level variability. Despite this long-standing interest in mitochondrial DNA, it was only in 2001 that the first complete ancient mitogenomic sequences were obtained. As a result of various methodological developments, including the introduction of high-throughput sequencing techniques, the total number of ancient mitogenome sequences has increased rapidly over the past few years. In this review, we present a brief history of ancient mitogenomics and describe the technical challenges that face researchers in the field. We catalogue the diverse sequencing methods and source materials used to obtain ancient mitogenomic sequences, summarise the associated genetic and phylogenetic studies that have been conducted, and evaluate the future prospects of the field.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalMitochondrion
    Volume10
    Issue number1
    Pages (from-to)1-11
    Number of pages11
    ISSN1567-7249
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jan 2010

    Keywords

    • Animals
    • DNA, Mitochondrial
    • Fossils
    • Genomics
    • Humans
    • Phylogeny
    • Polymerase Chain Reaction
    • Sequence Analysis, DNA

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