Welcome to lecture three of our series. Having covered the foundations of molecular and population genetics, this time we turn to the nitty-gritty of how DNA is extracted from a skeleton and how it is sequenced. I've attempted to make a kind of workflow, following the basic principles of DNA degradation, contamination, amplification, authentication and making gene libraries. We also take a dive into the timeline of DNA sequencing and the development of different technologies which have made sequencing possible. We touch on methods like shotgun and Sanger sequencing, PCR amplification, Next Gen and Third Gen methods and some key dates for archaeology.
In the final third of the lecture we look briefly at plants, animals and bacteria, DNA banks and projects, commercial DNA sequencing and how modern population sampling is crucial for archaeology.
All comments and thoughts welcome, hopefully you find this interesting as we move from generic genetics into more archaeologically specific topics.
#3 Introduction to Genetics for Archaeology