STR-genotyping from human medieval tooth and bone samples

François-Xavier Ricaut (1) , Christine Keyser-Tracqui (2) , Eric Crubézy (2) , Bertrand Ludes (3)

1 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
2 LA - Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie
3 Institut de Médecine Légale - IML (Paris, France)

We extracted the DNA contained in samples of bones and teeth from 10 skeletons excavated from the Gravette site (400-1000 AD, south of France). Ancient DNA was analysed by autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs). The DNA present in these ancient remains appeared very degraded, but nevertheless, better conserved in tooth than in bone samples. Moreover, we showed that the DNA extracted from ancient dental pulp was not exempt from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) inhibitors, which could result from extreme DNA fragmentation. An adapted protocol with a supplementary step of purification removed this inhibition.

Domaines: Anthropologie biologique

François-Xavier Ricaut, Christine Keyser-Tracqui, Eric Crubézy, Bertrand Ludes. STR-genotyping from human medieval tooth and bone samples. Forensic Science International, 2005, 151 (1), pp.31-35. ⟨10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.07.001⟩. ⟨hal-02112821⟩