TY - JOUR
T1 - Using palaeoenvironmental DNA to reconstruct past environments
T2 - Progress and prospects
AU - Rawlence, Nicolas J.
AU - Lowe, David J.
AU - Wood, Jamie R.
AU - Young, Jennifer M.
AU - Churchman, G. Jock
AU - Huang, Yu Tuan
AU - Cooper, Alan
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - Palaeoenvironmental DNA (PalEnDNA) is defined as ancient DNA (aDNA) originating from disseminated genetic material within palaeoenvironmental samples. Sources of PalEnDNA include marine and lake sediments, peat, loess, till, ice, permafrost, palaeosols, coprolites, preserved gut contents, dental calculus, tephras, and soils as well as deposits in caves/rockshelters and at archaeological sites. PalEnDNA analysis provides a relatively new tool for Quaternary and archaeological sciences and its applications have included palaeoenvironmental and palaeodietary reconstructions, testing hypotheses regarding megafaunal extinctions, human-environment interactions, taxonomic studies, and studies of DNA damage. Because PalEnDNA samples comprise markedly different materials, and represent wide-ranging depositional and taphonomic contexts, various issues must be addressed to achieve robust, reproducible findings. Such issues include climatic and temporal limitations, the biological origin and state (free versus bound) of PalEnDNA, stratigraphic reliability, sterile sampling, ability to distinguish modern from aDNA signals, DNA damage and PCR amplification, DNA extraction methods, and taxonomic resolution. In this review, we provide a non-specialist introduction to the use of PalEnDNA for Quaternary and archaeological researchers, assess attributes and limitations of this palaeoenvironmental tool, and discuss future prospects of using PalEnDNA to reconstruct past environments.
AB - Palaeoenvironmental DNA (PalEnDNA) is defined as ancient DNA (aDNA) originating from disseminated genetic material within palaeoenvironmental samples. Sources of PalEnDNA include marine and lake sediments, peat, loess, till, ice, permafrost, palaeosols, coprolites, preserved gut contents, dental calculus, tephras, and soils as well as deposits in caves/rockshelters and at archaeological sites. PalEnDNA analysis provides a relatively new tool for Quaternary and archaeological sciences and its applications have included palaeoenvironmental and palaeodietary reconstructions, testing hypotheses regarding megafaunal extinctions, human-environment interactions, taxonomic studies, and studies of DNA damage. Because PalEnDNA samples comprise markedly different materials, and represent wide-ranging depositional and taphonomic contexts, various issues must be addressed to achieve robust, reproducible findings. Such issues include climatic and temporal limitations, the biological origin and state (free versus bound) of PalEnDNA, stratigraphic reliability, sterile sampling, ability to distinguish modern from aDNA signals, DNA damage and PCR amplification, DNA extraction methods, and taxonomic resolution. In this review, we provide a non-specialist introduction to the use of PalEnDNA for Quaternary and archaeological researchers, assess attributes and limitations of this palaeoenvironmental tool, and discuss future prospects of using PalEnDNA to reconstruct past environments.
KW - Ancient DNA
KW - Archaeology
KW - Environmental DNA
KW - Palaeoecology
KW - Palaeoenvironmental DNA
KW - PalEnDNA
KW - Quaternary
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84923867737&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/jqs.2740
DO - 10.1002/jqs.2740
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84923867737
SN - 0267-8179
VL - 29
SP - 610
EP - 626
JO - Journal of Quaternary Science
JF - Journal of Quaternary Science
IS - 7
ER -
