Monthly Archives: May 2017

Scientists successfully sequenced DNA from mummies from the site of Abusir el-Meleq, one of which was buried in this sarcophagus.

bpk/Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, SMB/Sandra Steiss

By Lizzie WadeMay. 30, 2017 , 11:00 AM

Ancient Egyptian mummies preserve many details of the deceased: facial features, signs of illness, even tattoos. But not, it seemed, DNA. After trying repeatedly to extract it, may scientists were convinced that the hot desert climate and, perhaps, the chemicals used in mummification destroyed any genetic material long ago. Now, a team of ancient DNA specialists has successfully sequenced genomes from 90 ancient Egyptian mummies. The game-changing results give scientists their first insight into the genetics of ordinary ancient Egyptianswhich changed surprisingly little through centuries of conquests.

The sequencing success, reported this week in Nature Communications, finally proves to everyone that theres DNA preserved in ancient Egyptian mummies, says Albert Zink, a biological anthropologist at the Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzano, Italy. He participated in a 2010 study that identified DNA sequences from 16 ancient Egyptian royal mummies, including Tutankhamun. But that study used polymerase chain reaction, a method that efficiently finds and extracts targeted DNA fragments but cannot always reliably distinguish between ancient DNA and modern contamination.

The new study, led by Johannes Krause, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, used next-generation sequencing methods to read stretches of any DNA present in a sample and fish outthose that resembled human DNA. The complete reads allowed the team to spot tell-tale damage patterns associated only with ancient DNA. That makes the new analysis much more reliable, says Hannes Schroeder, an ancient DNA researcher at the University of Copenhagen. It succeeds where previous studies on Egyptian mummies have failed or fallen short.

Krause, who has studied the DNA of Neandertals, Denisovans, and prehistoric migrants to Europe, recently gravitated toward ancient Egyptian mummies because of the empires tumultuous political history. At various points, it was conquered by Assyrians from the Near East, Nubians from farther south along the Nile, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, among others. Our question was, did those foreign conquests have a genetic impact? Krause says.

Krause turned to a collection of 151 mummy heads from the ancient settlement of Abusir el-Meleq, about 100 kilometers south of Cairo along the Nile. The settlement was devoted to Osiris, the god of the dead, making it a popular burial spot for many centuries. The heads were excavated (and removed from their bodies) in the early 20th century and now reside in two collections in Germany, at the University of Tbingen and Berlins Museum of Prehistory and Early History. Radiocarbon dating shows that the mummies span 1300 years of ancient Egyptian history, during many of the foreign conquests and then Egypts incorporation into first the Greek and then the Roman empires.

Whereasthe mummies soft tissue contained almost no DNA, the bones and teeth were chock full of genetic material. Ninety of the mummies yielded DNA once housed in mitochondria, the power plants of cells. Mitochondria carry only a few genes, but they are so plentiful that its often easier to find their DNA than the single full human genome in a cells nucleus. Still, because mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mother to child, it leaves out the story of the fathers DNA. The nuclear genome, which contains DNA from both parents, is far more informative. Unfortunately, Krause says, only a few of the mummies nuclear genomes were well preserved, and even fewer passed his strict contamination tests. His team ended up with nuclear genome samples from only three mummies, each from a different time period.

Krauses team compared the mummies mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to ancient and modern populations in the Near East and Africa. They discovered that ancient Egyptians closely resembled ancient and modern Near Eastern populations, especially those in the Levant. Whats more, the genetics of the mummies remained remarkably consistent even as different powers conquered the empire. Its possible that the mitochondrial genomes simply dont record the genetic contributions of foreign fathers, says Yehia Gad, a molecular geneticist at the National Research Centre in Cairo and a founder of the Egyptian Museums ancient DNA lab who worked with Zink on past mummy studies. But the three mummies with nuclear genome data also show striking genetic continuity, Krause points out.

Later, however, something did alter the genomes of Egyptians. Although the mummies contain almost no DNA from sub-Saharan Africa, some 15% to 20%of modern Egyptians mitochondrial DNA reflects sub-Saharan ancestry. Its really unexpected that we see this very late shift, Krause says. He suspects increased trade along the Nileincluding the slave tradeor the spread of Islam in the Middle Ages may have intensified contact between Northern and sub-Saharan Africa.

Geneticist Iosif Lazaridis of Harvard Medical School in Boston, who studies how and when ancient populations mixed, calls the new results a big accomplishment. But he wonders how representative Abusir el-Meleq is of ancient Egypt as a whole. Egypt is a big place, he says. Other regions may have experienced its conquests in different ways, some perhaps with more genetic mixing. But Lazaridis hopes for more revelations to come. Now thatits been proven that its possible to sample from mummieswell, there are literally thousands of mummies.

See the rest here:
Scientists thought ancient Egyptian mummies didn't have any DNA left. They were wrong - Science Magazine

RICHMOND The Virginia State Crime Commission will consider expanding the state DNA database of convicted people by including more misdemeanors.

While a larger database of DNA profiles from offenders would help solve more crimes, further expansion of qualifying crimes raises cost and privacy concerns and is opposed by the ACLU of Virginia and others.

The commission staff will also review the adequacy of current safeguards against the unauthorized collection, retention or dissemination of DNA information collected by authorities and the money required for any additional collecting.

A bill that would have directed the crime commission to study expanding DNA collection did not pass in the General Assembly this year, but the commissions executive committee decided it wanted to do it anyway.

State Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, the chairman of the commission, said, Im looking forward to the information our staff assembles as they review what has happened in Virginia and other states.

Among those in favor of the study are John and Susan Graham, parents of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, who believe she would not have been murdered had her killers DNA been taken following a misdemeanor trespassing conviction in 2010.

Hannah Graham was abducted in Charlottesville and slain by Jesse Matthew Jr. in 2014. His DNA from the trespassing conviction would have generated a hit in 2010 linking Matthew to a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax, and he would have presumably been in prison in 2014 instead of killing Graham.

As part ofa 2016 plea deal, Matthewpleaded guilty to killing Graham and 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington of Roanoke County, who was abducted in October 2009 in Charlottesville.

The Grahams and expansion proponents like Albemarle County Sheriff J.E. Chip Harding and Commonwealths Attorney Robert Tracci say they hope the commission will look at which class one misdemeanor convictions in Virginia those punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of $2,500 make the most sense for requiring samples.

According to the National Council of State Legislatures, two states, New York and Wisconsin, currently collect DNA samples from people convicted of all felonies and misdemeanors; two states collect for only some felonies and some misdemeanors; while 42 states, including Virginia, collect for all felonies and some misdemeanors.

The Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences website shows Virginias database, also called a databank, now holds more than 415,000 offender DNA profiles. DNA profiles recovered from crime scenes are compared looking for matches, or hits. The DNA profiles can also be compared to find matches between crimes and exonerate the innocent.

Virginia was the first state with its own database and had its first hit in 1993 when the assailant was identified in the vicious beating, rape and robbery of a 63-year-old Dale City woman. Virginias database profiles have now solved, or assisted in solving, more 10,000 crimes including 750 murders and more than 1,500 sexual assaults.

In Virginia most recently, nine misdemeanors were added in 2015. DNA is now currently collected from adults convicted of 14 primarily sex-related misdemeanors, but also for such misdemeanors as resisting arrest, stalking and the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

(DNA samples are also required in Virginia from: adults convicted of felonies and adults arrested for any violent felony and certain burglary crimes; juveniles, 14 or older at the time of the offense and convicted or adjudicated delinquent of any crime that would be a felony if committed by an adult; people registered with the Virginia Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; and anyone ordered to provide a sample by a circuit court as part of a plea agreement. Profiles collected at the time of arrest are removed from the database if there is no conviction.)

Traci said he and Harding provided a host of topics they hope the commission staff will look at, among them the experience of New York and Wisconsin since those states expanded collection to include all misdemeanors and identify the serious misdemeanors that returned the most hits to unsolved crimes as a result of their expansions.

He also said they would like to see a review of current privacy protections to enhance transparency and confidence in the integrity of safekeeping and prevention of unauthorized dissemination of the collected DNA. That would also include possible stiffer penalties for the unlawful retention or dissemination of information.

Kristen Howard, executive director of the commission, indicated those areas will be examined. The commission will hear a report on the proposal at its Nov. 14 meeting.

Bill Farrar, a spokesman for the ACLU of Virginia, said, We would object to any expansion to the list of offenses for which DNA collection would be made mandatory.

Already, in our estimation, the list has grown beyond whats really appropriate. We dont think that this most personal and private of information should be collected from people who have only committed a misdemeanor, for example, Farrar said.

Read more:
Va. crime commission to study expansion of DNA databank to include more people convicted of misdemeanors - Roanoke Times