Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

3 articles published in JoVE

• Genetics

  
  Optimized Bone Sampling Protocols for the Retrieval of Ancient DNA from Archaeological Remains Cody E. Parker^1,2, Kirsten I. Bos^1,3, Wolfgang Haak^1,3, Johannes Krause^{1,3 1}Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, ²School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, ³Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The protocol presents a series of best practice protocols for the collection of bone powder from eight recommended anatomical sampling locations (specific locations on a given skeletal element) across five different skeletal elements from medieval individuals (radiocarbon dated to a period of ca. 1040-1400 CE, calibrated 2-sigma range).

• Bioengineering

  
  Manipulation of Single Neural Stem Cells and Neurons in Brain Slices using Robotic Microinjection Gabriella Shull*^1,2, Christiane Haffner*³, Wieland B. Huttner³, Elena Taverna^3,4, Suhasa B. Kodandaramaiah^{1,5,6 1}Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, ³Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, ⁴Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, ⁵Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, ⁶Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Minnesota This protocol demonstrates the use of a robotic platform for microinjection into single neural stem cells and neurons in brain slices. This technique is versatile and offers a method of tracking cells in tissue with high spatial resolution.

• Biology

  
  Primer Extension Capture: Targeted Sequence Retrieval from Heavily Degraded DNA Sources Adrian W. Briggs¹, Jeffrey M. Good¹, Richard E. Green¹, Johannes Krause¹, Tomislav Maricic¹, Udo Stenzel¹, Svante Pääbo^{1 1}Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig We present a method of targeted ancient DNA sequence retrieval, which we used to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial genomes of five Neandertal individuals. Comparison of these sequences with present day humans suggests that Neandertals had a long term low effective population size.