[Aztlan] 2000 YEAR OLD DNA FROM CHEWED PLANTS IN THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST SHOW CENTRAL MEXICAN ROOTS

[michael ruggeri]

Ancient Chewing Gum Yields DNA
By Erik Stokstad
ScienceNOW Daily News
22 August 2007

Steven LeBlanc has been dreaming about ancient DNA for several  
decades, but he never had any luck extracting it from museum  
artifacts. Then, a few years ago, LeBlanc, an archaeologist and  
collections manager at Harvard University's Peabody Museum in  
Cambridge, Massachusetts, had a brainstorm. He was staring at drawers  
full of quids--wads of plant material chewed by ancient Native  
Americans--when he realized, "Quid ... saliva ... DNA ... DING!"
In the September Journal of Field Archaeology, LeBlanc and several co- 
authors report that they have recovered DNA from 2000-year-old quids,  
as well as from aprons worn by Native Americans. The quids and aprons  
belonged to a vanished tribe that archaeologists call the Western  
Basketmakers. Between about 500 B.C.E. and 500 C.E., they lived in  
caves and rock shelters in what is now southern Utah and northern  
Arizona. Dry conditions are ideal for preserving DNA, and researchers  
have previously extracted ancient DNA from skeletons and feces of  
both humans and animals (ScienceNOW, 16 July 1998).
After getting the idea to test quids, LeBlanc teamed up with Thomas  
Benjamin, a cancer biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston,  
Massachusetts, and other researchers. They pulled mitochondrial DNA  
from 48 quids and from 18 aprons that had been stained with what was  
likely menstrual blood. Then they scanned the DNA for various  
molecular markers called haplogroups, which appear in different  
frequencies in different parts of the world.
LeBlanc and his colleagues found that about 14% of these samples  
contained haplogroup A. This haplogroup is extremely rare in the  
Southwest, but it occurs in about half of the population of Central  
America. The intermediate frequency in the sample of Western  
Basketmakers fits with the idea that they migrated from somewhere in  
central Mexico, bringing agriculture into the turf of foragers. The  
results were confirmed by a second laboratory, and LeBlanc says the  
absence of European haplogroups rules out the possibility of  
contamination.
The larger conclusion is that museum artifacts can provide a new  
source of data. Quids are common in collections, notes Connie  
Mulligan of the University of Florida, Gainesville, although aprons  
less so. Next, the team hopes to sample other textiles, samples, and  
cigarettes made from hollow reeds. "It's a neat and novel  
application," says Anne Stone, an ancient DNA expert at Arizona State  
University in Tempe. She notes that testing artifacts may be  
especially important when Native American tribes are reluctant to  
allow sampling of their ancestors' skeletons.





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