Journal of Applied Genetics 41(4), 2000, pp. 285-292

Frequent D-loop polymorphism in mtDNA enables genotyping of 1400-year-old human remains from Merowingian graves

Monika ZELLER, Farhad MIRGHOMIZADEH, Heinz-Dieter WEHNER, Nikolaus BLIN

Abstract: Improvements of DNA extraction and amplification techniques presently enable DNA analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) from samples which range from several hundred years of age up to possibly 5000 years. Taking advantage of the abundance of mitochondrial DNA and its polymorphic D-loop sequence, ten individuals from multiple burial sites of the Merowingian culture (South Germany), estimated to be

Key words: ancient DNA, kinship analysis, mtDNA sequencing.

Correspondence: M. ZELLER, Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Tubingen, GartenstraBe 47, D�72074 Tubingen, Germany.