Re: [DIYbio] Information physics and theoretical limits of extremely old DNA?

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 9:59 AM, Bryan Bishop <kanzure@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been wondering about ancient DNA.
>
> There is at least one claim from the panspermia folks that says, among other
> things, that DNA and microbes can travel on asteroids for millions of years.
> But at the same time, nobody has figured out a reliable PCR protocol for
> extracting DNA from million-year-old bugs trapped in ambers. We've
> successfully extracted DNA from "recently" deceased hominids and other
> creatures- say, those that have been living within 50 kya.
>
> "Assuming physiological salt concentrations, neutral pH and a temperature of
> 15 C, it would take about 100k years for hydrolytic damage to destroy all
> DNA that could be reasonably retrieved (Hoxreiter et al., 2001)."
> via: http://email.eva.mpg.de/~paabo/pdf1/HofreiterAncDNA_NatRev2001.pdf
> which primary cites "Instability and decay of the primary structure of DNA"
> (too old to find a copy?).

Original paper is here:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v362/n6422/pdf/362709a0.pdf

and here's a copy
http://diyhpl.us/~nmz787/instability%20and%20decay%20of%20the%20primary%20structure%20of%20DNA.pdf


--
Nathan McCorkle
Rochester Institute of Technology
College of Science, Biotechnology/Bioinformatics

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