@article{StraubePreickNayloretal.2021,
  author    = {Straube, Nicolas and Preick, Michaela and Naylor, Gavin J. P. and Hofreiter, Michael},
  title     = {Mitochondrial DNA sequencing of a wet-collection syntype demonstrates the importance of type material as genetic resource for lantern shark taxonomy (Chondrichthyes: Etmopteridae)},
  series = {Royal Society Open Science},
  volume    = {8},
  journal   = {Royal Society Open Science},
  number    = {9},
  publisher = {Royal Society},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2054-5703},
  doi       = {10.1098/rsos.210474},
  pages     = {13},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {After initial detection of target archival DNA of a 116-year-old syntype specimen of the smooth lantern shark, Etmopterus pusillus, in a single-stranded DNA library, we shotgun-sequenced additional 9 million reads from this same DNA library. Sequencing reads were used for extracting mitochondrial sequence information for analyses of mitochondrial DNA characteristics and reconstruction of the mitochondrial genome. The archival DNA is highly fragmented. A total of 4599 mitochondrial reads were available for the genome reconstruction using an iterative mapping approach. The resulting genome sequence has 12 times coverage and a length of 16 741 bp. All 37 vertebrate mitochondrial loci plus the control region were identified and annotated. The mitochondrial NADH2 gene was subsequently used to place the syntype haplotype in a network comprising multiple E. pusillus samples from various distant localities as well as sequences from a morphological similar species, the shortfin smooth lantern shark Etmopterus joungi. Results confirm the almost global distribution of E. pusillus and suggest E. joungi to be a junior synonym of E. pusillus. As mitochondrial DNA often represents the only available reference information in non-model organisms, this study illustrates the importance of mitochondrial DNA from an aged, wet collection type specimen for taxonomy.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KruegerFoersterTrauthetal.2021,
  author    = {Kr{\"u}ger, Johanna and Foerster, Verena Elisabeth and Trauth, Martin H. and Hofreiter, Michael and Tiedemann, Ralph},
  title     = {Exploring the Past Biosphere of Chew Bahir/Southern Ethiopia: Cross-Species Hybridization Capture of Ancient Sedimentary DNA from a Deep Drill Core},
  series = {Frontiers in Earth Science},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Earth Science},
  publisher = {Frontiers in Earth Science},
  address   = {Lausanne, Schweiz},
  issn      = {2296-6463},
  doi       = {10.3389/feart.2021.683010},
  pages     = {1 -- 20},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Eastern Africa has been a prime target for scientific drilling because it is rich in key paleoanthropological sites as well as in paleolakes, containing valuable paleoclimatic information on evolutionary time scales. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) explores these paleolakes with the aim of reconstructing environmental conditions around critical episodes of hominin evolution. Identification of biological taxa based on their sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) traces can contribute to understand past ecological and climatological conditions of the living environment of our ancestors. However, sedaDNA recovery from tropical environments is challenging because high temperatures, UV irradiation, and desiccation result in highly degraded DNA. Consequently, most of the DNA fragments in tropical sediments are too short for PCR amplification. We analyzed sedaDNA in the upper 70 m of the composite sediment core of the HSPDP drill site at Chew Bahir for eukaryotic remnants. We first tested shotgun high throughput sequencing which leads to metagenomes dominated by bacterial DNA of the deep biosphere, while only a small fraction was derived from eukaryotic, and thus probably ancient, DNA. Subsequently, we performed cross-species hybridization capture of sedaDNA to enrich ancient DNA (aDNA) from eukaryotic remnants for paleoenvironmental analysis, using established barcoding genes (cox1 and rbcL for animals and plants, respectively) from 199 species that may have had relatives in the past biosphere at Chew Bahir. Metagenomes yielded after hybridization capture are richer in reads with similarity to cox1 and rbcL in comparison to metagenomes without prior hybridization capture. Taxonomic assignments of the reads from these hybridization capture metagenomes also yielded larger fractions of the eukaryotic domain. For reads assigned to cox1, inferred wet periods were associated with high inferred relative abundances of putative limnic organisms (gastropods, green algae), while inferred dry periods showed increased relative abundances for insects. These findings indicate that cross-species hybridization capture can be an effective approach to enhance the information content of sedaDNA in order to explore biosphere changes associated with past environmental conditions, enabling such analyses even under tropical conditions.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{GurkeVidalGorosquietaPajimansetal.2021,
  author    = {Gurke, Marie and Vidal-Gorosquieta, Amalia and Pajimans, Johanna L. A. and Wȩcek, Karolina and Barlow, Axel and Gonz{\´a}lez-Fortes, Gloria M. and Hartmann, Stefanie and Grandal-d'Anglade, Aurora and Hofreiter, Michael},
  title     = {Insight into the introduction of domestic cattle and the process of Neolithization to the Spanish region Galicia by genetic evidence},
  series = {PLoS ONE},
  volume    = {16},
  journal   = {PLoS ONE},
  number    = {4},
  publisher = {Public Library of Science},
  address   = {San Francisco},
  issn      = {1932-6203},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0249537},
  pages     = {15},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Domestic cattle were brought to Spain by early settlers and agricultural societies. Due to missing Neolithic sites in the Spanish region of Galicia, very little is known about this process in this region. We sampled 18 cattle subfossils from different ages and different mountain caves in Galicia, of which 11 were subject to sequencing of the mitochondrial genome and phylogenetic analysis, to provide insight into the introduction of cattle to this region. We detected high similarity between samples from different time periods and were able to compare the time frame of the first domesticated cattle in Galicia to data from the connecting region of Cantabria to show a plausible connection between the Neolithization of these two regions. Our data shows a close relationship of the early domesticated cattle of Galicia and modern cow breeds and gives a general insight into cattle phylogeny. We conclude that settlers migrated to this region of Spain from Europe and introduced common European breeds to Galicia.},
  language  = {en}
}