Archaeogenetics

The Archäogenetik deals with the traces of the past in the genetic material of humans and the animals and plants that accompanied the man on the path of evolution. It will be exposed samples of crops, domestic animals and people considered that originate both from ancient DNA from archaeological finds as well as animals and plants of today's time. With the means of molecular biology to prehistoric events such as the emergence and spread of agriculture can be reconstructed. Coined the term Archäogenetik ( Archaeogenetics ) by Colin Renfrew.

Formation

The research branch of Archäogenetik goes back to the studies of human blood groups of Ludwik and Hanka Hirszfeld, William Boyd and Arthur Mourant. For a long time examined Luca Cavalli Sforza blood groups in regard to the prehistoric population of Europe and in 1994 brought the results in his book The History and Geography of Human Genes (ISBN 978-0691087504 ) out. The crucial breakthrough was the New Zealander Allan Wilson, who analyzed directly instead of gene products (proteins) the genetic material. In 1967 he came through chromosome hybridizations to the conclusion that humans and chimpanzees parted from each other until about 6 million years. In the years 1987 and 1991 he presented then the mitochondrial Eve, that is, the reconstructed result of the mitochondrial DNA ancestor of all currently existing maternal lines. This woman lived according to Wilson's family tree in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

Based on research by Peter Forster, Arne Roehl and colleagues since 1995, the presumption has confirmed that only one human group from Africa successfully aussie -punched, before only 50,000 years ago. It is unclear why other African groups prehistoric sea crossings is the rest of the world before or since have succeeded. Since then, the genetic history of all important domesticated animals has been studied ( such as cattle, sheep, pigs, horses) and plants (such as wheat, rice, maize). Once again it was mainly based on the DNA of the mitochondria. In mammals (including humans ) has recently been used as the DNA of the Y chromosome for genetic analysis. Through it allows the male line of descent traced (Adam of the Y chromosome ).

Molecular pedigree

Non- recombining portions of DNA provide in the application of appropriate statistical methods pedigrees direct lineages. The basic idea of the research team Avise et al., That the term ' phylogeography ' suggested, referring to the geographical point of view of a family tree, was further developed by Hans -Jürgen Bandelt and his students. This approach has to reconstruct the target DNA from raw time and place of genetic events in evolution. For better calculation of pedigrees Bandelt led the development of so-called evolutionary networks that are as " Network" computer program freely available today. The term molecular pedigree as German translation for ' phylogeography ' was coined by Forster and Hamel and first used in 2002. " Geographically - molecular network " would be within the meaning of Bandelt a more appropriate term for ' phylogeography '.