S4.16 Direwolves and Denisovans: Uncovering the stories in ancient DNA

Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. In this episode we’re delving back into the ancient past, winding the clock back thousands of years to discover the stories of Denisovans and direwolves that researchers are now able to read in the fragments of DNA left in bones or even dirt.

For a field focusing on things that died thousands of years ago, ancient DNA research is very much alive.

New genetic tools and technologies are allowing scientists to delve back tens or even hundreds of thousands of years into the past in a way that was never possible before. 

Back in June this year Chinese scientists unveiled an ancient skull from so-called ‘Dragon man’ - which might represent the first example of an elusive species of human that lived nearly 150,000 years ago. 

And last year a team at the University of Copenhagen and their colleagues announced they’d managed to successfully read the sequence of proteins extracted from the tooth enamel of a human ancestor - Homo antecessor - who lived around 800,000 years ago, making this the oldest human molecular biology evidence we have on record so far.

Researchers have even managed to extract and sequence DNA from viruses in 30,000 year old human teeth, showing that the diseases that plagued our ancestors aren’t so dissimilar to the ones we catch today. 

All of these advances are opening a new window into the past to understand the species that were around in different parts of the world, how they interacted together, and why - in the case of the ones that have gone extinct - they’re no longer with us.

Kieren Mitchell: Direwolves and their DNA

One of the people who’s digging into the past through the use of ancient DNA to understand why a species might have vanished is Dr Kieren Mitchell from the University of Adelaide. His species of choice? The direwolf. Yep, they are real - or rather, they were… Click here to learn more about Dr Kieren Mitchell’s fascinating work.

Benjamin Vernot: Digging for DNA in cave dirt

Moving on from direwolves, giant kangaroos and Siberian unicorns to our own species, I caught up with Dr Benjamin Vernot - a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Rather than studying bones, he’s been digging for DNA in more unlikely places in order to unearth the stories from our ancient ancestors. Click here to find out what Dr Benjamin Vernot has been working on.

If you’re not sick of the sound of my voice and have access to the BBC iPlayer or BBC Sounds, you can check out all ten episodes from both series of Ingenious, my Radio 4 series looking at the science and the stories behind some of my favourite human genes. 

This time around we did the Fat Gene, FTO, the Huntington’s gene, the Warrior gene, the HIV gene and the eyeball gene. Each episode is only 15 minutes and really good fun, so do go back and check them out if you have some time over the summer. Search for Ingenious Kat Arney, or follow the link from the page for this podcast at GeneticsUnzipped.com.

And as we highlighted last week, my latest book, Rebel Cell: Cancer, evolution and the science of life, is now out in paperback in the UK, along with the hardback, Kindle and audiobook versions, and a US edition. We’ve also got translations coming out in various languages including Hungarian, Taiwanese, German, Japanese and Polish. Just head to your favourite real-life or online retailer or go to rebelcellbook.com to buy a signed copy or bookplate sticker. Thank you.

That’s all for now. Thanks to my guests Kieren Mitchell and Benjamin Vernot for taking me on a trip back into the ancient past.  We’ll be back next time going even further back in evolutionary time, to look at the very origins of life itself.

For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.

Genetics Unzipped is written and presented by me, Kat Arney.  It is produced by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk.  Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall, and audio production was by Hannah Varrall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.

Image Credits:

• La Brea Direwolf Skulls: Bill Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia

• Benjamin Vernot: Courtesy of Benjamin Vernot

• Kieren Mitchell: Courtesy of Kieren Mitchell