Genetic material tracked down in fossilized droppings / DNA remnants give insight into habits of extinct animals
Using the most modern techniques in molecular biology, Max Planck researcher Svante Pääbo has succeeded for the first time in obtaining parts of the genetic material of a long-extinct animal species from the remnants of its droppings. In conjunction with Hendrik Poinar from the Zoological Institute at the University of Munich and with other colleagues, Pääbo has tracked down and isolated intact DNA from the giant sloth. These vegetarian animals, which were the size of an elephant and lived on the ground, inhabited North and South America until some 10,000 years ago. In a cave near Las Vegas, Nevada, researchers found deep layers of about 20,000-year-old, dried ground sloth dung which served as the source for investigations.
The team of scientists report
on their success, which colleagues all over the world
consider as an important milestone in the examination of
extinct species, in the current issue of the U.S. journal Science
(Vol. 281, 17 July 1998). DNA
could thus far not be isolated from the feces of extinct
animals. The reason for this was recently revealed by a
careful analysis: In nature, a chemical reaction takes place
in dried dung which creates additional crosslinks between the
DNA molecules. Once such Maillard products have developed,
the genetic material can no longer be analyzed with
conventional methods. But, as Svante Pääbo believes, these
crosslinks at the same time protect the DNA from complete
destruction. Yet if the scientists treat the ground sloth
dung with N-phenacylthiazolium bromide, the crosslinks
break open again and the DNA
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Contact: Svante Pbo
paabo@zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de
49-89-5902-521
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
17-Jul-1998