Written by SNWA Wednesday, 17 February 2010 10:47
RESEARCHERS from Murdoch University and Copenhagen have declared a world first, having successfully sequenced the entire genetic code of a man who lived in Greenland 4000 years ago.
The research gives scientists the opportunity to study an ancient culture with unprecedented clarity and accuracy.
According to Dr Michael Bunce of Murdoch University’s Ancient DNA Lab and co-author of the study, the ability to extract and rebuild a complete picture of a long-dead individual could have huge ramifications for the world of archaeology and help scientists refine previous assumptions about human migratory patterns.
“Previously we knew that a culture lived in Greenland 4000-5000 years ago called the Saqqaq culture but we didn’t know where they came from or what their origins were,” says Dr Bunce.
“But when you look at the DNA, we can tell that they came from a North-East Siberian population that migrated across the Bering land bridge, across the top of North America, and settled in Greenland.”
The project, which took around a year to complete, took samples from a clump of preserved hair found during an archaeological excavation in Greenland. This small lock of hair gave researchers a uniquely intimate portrait of their subject.
“From their genes we can infer and take pretty good educated guesses about the characteristics of the culture,” Dr Bunce says.
“We can tell that they had very dark skin, dark hair, brown eyes, shovelled front teeth, dry earwax and A+ blood group.”
With only a few individual human genomes completely sequenced, the method is relatively new but in as little as ten years scientists could be charting human history on a genetic level.
“At present the majority of the evidence used for charting the movements and interactions of early humans are physical, not genetic. However, this could change in the coming years,” says Dr Bunce.
“We get much more resolution of course when we go to the genome level rather than just looking at these small pieces of the jigsaw.
According to Dr Bunce, where our ancestors came from, who they interacted with, who they interbred with, the level of inbreeding within a population, the level of migration, and whether they traded with neighbouring populations is all very accessible through DNA.
“This is the next phase in archaeology,” says Dr Bunce.
“Looking at things at a genome level and making inferences about what people looked like, their characteristics and what their ancestry was.
“What their genetic story is, so to speak.”
