{"id":557,"date":"2019-10-07T06:56:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T06:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/website.prod.unilu.spikeseed.cloud\/fr\/news\/accessing-genetic-information-from-the-past-is-crucial\/"},"modified":"2019-10-07T06:56:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T06:56:47","slug":"accessing-genetic-information-from-the-past-is-crucial","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/news\/accessing-genetic-information-from-the-past-is-crucial\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessing genetic information from the past is crucial"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-free-section section\"><div class=\"container xl:max-w-screen-xl\"><p>Aur\u00e9lien Ginolhac, bioinformatician at the University of Luxembourg, has contributed to the recent publication \u201cEarly Pleistocene enamel proteome from Dmanisi\u00a0resolves Stephanorhinus phylogenyin\u201d in the prestigious scientific journal <i>Nature<\/i>. In this paper, they have demonstrated how the recovery of peptide sequences inside enamel enables to understand the evolution of species.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-unilux-blocks-heading\"        id=\"retrieving-dna-from-a-horse-to-a-rhino\"\n    >\nRetrieving DNA from a horse to a rhino\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>The oldest genome available until now was from the DNA of a 700,000-year-old horse that <a href=\"https:\/\/wwwfr.uni.lu\/recherche\/fstm\/dlsm\/people\/aurelien_ginolhac\" target=\"_self\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Aur\u00e9lien Ginolhac<\/a>, researcher within the <a href=\"https:\/\/wwwfr.uni.lu\/recherche\/fstm\/dlsm\" target=\"_self\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Life Sciences Research Unit (LSRU)<\/a> at the University of Luxembourg co-published in 2013 when he was working at the University of Copenhagen. This DNA was still preserved, despite being extremely fragmented thanks to the location of the fossil: a permanently frozen soil (permafrost) in Yukon, Canada.\u00a0Most fossils of interest are not conserved in those frozen conditions and DNA is unlikely to be informative when more degraded and fragmented.\u00a0<\/p><p>In the Dmanisi cave (Georgia), Dr. <a href=\"https:\/\/globe.ku.dk\/research\/evogenomics\/research-groups\/cappellini_group\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Enrico Cappellini<\/a>, a specialist in\u00a0Palaeoproteomics at the Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen and first\u00a0author on the paper, managed to retrieve protein sequences from an extinct rhino tooth. Using ground-breaking technology called mass spectrometry, Enrico and collaborators retrieved\u00a0genetic information from the tooth of a 1.77 million year old\u00a0<i>Stephanorhinus<\/i>\u00a0specimen which lived in Eurasia during the Pleistocene.\u00a0<\/p><p><strong>Using high performance computing<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p><p>Extraction of ancient DNA was also performed and sequences were analysed at the University of Luxembourg thanks to the <a href=\"https:\/\/hpc.uni.lu\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">High Performance Computing (HPC)<\/a> facility. \u201cWe demonstrated that no genuine DNA templates were present by comparing the obtained sequences to different modern mammals genomes since this extinct rhino genome is not known. The conclusion was that genetic information for such old specimens is still preserved only in the proteins contained in the enamel of teeth, the hardest material in vertebrates bodies\u201d, explains Aur\u00e9lien.\u00a0<\/p><p>Dr. Enrico Cappellini commented: \u201cFor 20 years\u00a0ancient DNA has been used to address questions about the evolution of extinct\u00a0species, adaptation and human migration but it has limitations. Now for the first\u00a0time we have retrieved ancient genetic information which allows us to\u00a0reconstruct molecular evolution way beyond the usual time limit of DNA\u00a0preservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><p><strong>New ways to study extinct species<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p><p>DNA data that\u00a0genetically tracks human evolution only covers the last 400,000 years. But the\u00a0lineages that led to modern humans and to the chimp \u2013 the living species\u00a0genetically closest to humans \u2013 branched apart around six to seven million\u00a0years ago which means scientists currently have no genetic information for more\u00a0than 90 per cent of\u00a0the evolutionary path that led to modern humans. Using paleoproteomics is opening an exciting area where scientists can now study\u00a0extinct species such\u00a0as\u00a0<i>Homo erectus<\/i>, which remains are present in the Dmanisi cave,\u00a0because everything that\u00a0is currently known is\u00a0almost exclusively based on anatomical information, not genetic information.<\/p><p><strong>Further collaboration<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p><p>Collaboration between researchers Enrico and Aur\u00e9lien will continue, since Enrico was recently awarded an\u00a0Innovative Training Networks (ITN)\u00a0project (Call: H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019) named\u00a0Palaeoproteomics to Unleash Studies on Human History (PUSHH). One of the future recruited PhD student will spend 3 months at the University of Luxembourg to be supervised by Aur\u00e9lien Ginolhac and <a href=\"https:\/\/wwwfr.uni.lu\/recherche\/fstm\/dcs\/members\/sebastien_varrette\" target=\"_self\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">S\u00e9bastien Varrette<\/a> (Deputy Head HPC for research) to set-up a computational workflow to analyse ancient proteins data.<\/p><p>In addition, Enrico Cappellini will give a talk entitled: \u00ab\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wwwfr.uni.lu\/fstm\/actualites\/palaeoproteomic_analysis_for_cultural_heritage_and_molecular_phylogeny_beyond_the_limits_of_ancient_dna\" target=\"_self\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Palaeoproteomic analysis for cultural heritage and molecular phylogeny beyond the limits of ancient DNA<\/a>\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0at the University of Luxembourg on 25 November 2019.<\/p><p>&#8212;<\/p><p>Article:\u00a0<i>Stephanorhinus<\/i><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-unilux-blocks-heading\"        id=\"picture-stephanorhinus-skull-from-dmanisi-mirian-kiladze-georgian-national-museum\"\n    >\nPicture:\u00a0Stephanorhinus skull from Dmanisi\u00a0\u00a9 Mirian Kiladze, Georgian National Museum<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aur\u00e9lien Ginolhac, bioinformatician at the University of Luxembourg, has contributed to the recent publication \u201cEarly Pleistocene enamel proteome from Dmanisi\u00a0resolves Stephanorhinus phylogenyin\u201d in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. In this paper, they have demonstrated how the recovery of peptide sequences inside enamel enables to understand the evolution of species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_image_focal_point":[],"show_featured_caption":false,"ulux_newsletter_groups":"","uluxPostTitle":"","uluxPrePostTitle":"","_trash_the_other_posts":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"news-category":[4,3],"news-topic":[19],"organisation":[96,25,226],"authorship":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Accessing genetic information from the past is crucial - Universit\u00e9 du Luxembourg<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Aur\u00e9lien Ginolhac, bioinformatician at the University of Luxembourg, has contributed to the recent publication \u201cEarly Pleistocene enamel proteome from Dmanisi\u00a0resolves Stephanorhinus phylogenyin\u201d in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. In this paper, they have demonstrated how the recovery of peptide sequences inside enamel enables to understand the evolution of species.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fr\/news\/accessing-genetic-information-from-the-past-is-crucial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Accessing genetic information from the past is crucial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aur\u00e9lien Ginolhac, bioinformatician at the University of Luxembourg, has contributed to the recent publication \u201cEarly Pleistocene enamel proteome from Dmanisi\u00a0resolves Stephanorhinus phylogenyin\u201d in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. 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