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Ancient Human Genome rebuilt by Danish Scientists

12 Feb 2010

Scientists have reconstructed the nuclear genome of a man who died in Greenland 4000 years ago; for the first time an ancient genome has been reconstructed in detail – revealing features including a tendency to baldness, the colour of his eyes, his skin colour and blood type.

"Inuk" (photo: Nuka Frederiksen) - Click here to watch video >>

The man was a member of the first culture to occupy the Arctic area in the vicinity of North America, and the researchers used a tuft of his hair to reconstruct the 80% of the nuclear genome, which is possible to retrieve from fossil remains.

Scientists behind the breakthrough say that it can be used to find out more about the genetic characteristics of extinct cultures, to identify the modern populations most closely related to extinct cultures, and to improve our understanding of inheritance and disease risk is passed down from our ancestors.

Professor Eske Willerslev and PhD student Morten Rasmussen, from the center of excellence in geogenetics at the Natural History Museum, the University of Copenhagen, led the international team of scientists that conducted the research.

They called the subject of their work “Inuk”, which means “man” or “human” in Greenlandic, and reported he was more closely related to contemporary north-eastern Siberian tribes than to the modern Inuit.

They have also discovered that Inuk had a tendency to baldness, dry earwax, brown eyes, dark skin, the blood type A+, shovel-shaped incisors, and that he had genetically adapted to cold temperatures, and to what extent he was predisposed for certain diseases.

The results are significant, as the only other human remains of the first people who settled the New World Arctic are four small pieces of bones and hair.

Willerslev’s team also showed that Inuk ancestors crossed into the New World from the north-eastern Siberia between 4400 and 6400 years ago in a migration wave that was independent of the Indians and Inuit ancestors.

Willerslev said that the latest work was a step up from his previous work on mammoth genome, which resulted in a sequence full of holes and errors due to DNA damage, because the technology was in its infancy.

The genome Inuk, is comparable in quality to a modern human being,

says Willerslev.

“Earlier DNA must be frozen or buried in a layer of permafrost for scientific research. But with the new methods developed here at the Center, that is no longer a prerequisite.”

The study was conducted with the help of researchers in China, where there are more gene sequencing machines than in Denmark, in the USA, UK and Greenland.