Fossil protein breakthrough will probe evolution

NewScientist.com news service ^ | 19:00 13 November 02 | Fred Pearce

[dead]

The first complete sequencing of protein from a fossil bone suggests that proteins can survive for millions of years - long enough to probe the evolution of many extinct species, including the ancestors of modern humans.

For many years, biologists have deduced evolutionary relationships from the visible features of living animals and fossils. Molecular biology has given them a new tool for living animals - comparing DNA sequences. However, DNA survives for only a short time after death, so paleontologists have been limited to comparing the shapes and sizes of the bones of extinct species.

But analyzing ancient proteins now gives them a new option, says Christina Nielsen-Marsh of the University of Newcastle, because their amino acid sequences reflect genetic codes.

The big advantage of proteins is their stability in suitable environments. Pieces of DNA large enough to sequence using sensitive amplification techniques can survive for 100,000 years in permafrost. But osteocalcin, a structural protein that bonds directly to the minerals of bone, lasts much longer.

Matthew Collins, also at Newcastle University, estimates that osteocalcin can survive for more than 100 million years at 0 °C, and for some 10 million years at 10 °C. That would be long enough to look back some six or seven million years to the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees.

Exact match

To show the potential of their technique, Nielsen-Marsh and colleagues sequenced the amino acids in osteocalcin extracted from bones of the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) found in permafrost in Siberia and Alaska. Both bones are a minimum of 55,000 years old, the limit of carbon dating.

The complete sequences of amino acids exactly matched that of the modern bison (Bison bison). They differ by a single amino acid from modern cattle, which are thought to have diverged from bison at least a million years ago. Previous work has detected - but not isolated or sequenced - proteins in 120 million year old dinosaur bone.

Although osteocalcin sequences diverge slowly, they can probe evolution over millions of years. "Human evolution, is the most exciting of the possibilities," says Peter Hauschka of the Harvard Medical School, US, who worked with Nielsen-Marsh. Osteocalcins differ by a few amino acids in humans, chimps and orangutans, he says, so they could help identify the nearest living relatives of suitable fossils.

Hominid fossils are few and far between, and it could be hard to persuade anthropologists to give them up for the destructive analysis. Yet teeth also contain osteocalcin, and they are much more common fossils.

Osteocalcin itself may not be able to determine the puzzling lineages of australopithecines and humans over the past two million years, but the method could be applied to other proteins that might give a clearer picture.

Journal reference: Geology (vol 30, p 1099)

[stanz]

Good article. I'll add it to my collection.

[stanz]

ping

[PatrickHenry]

General crevo ping.

[Saturnalia]

This one is going to be fun.
Anyone care to guess the number of posts before f.Christian appears? 15 is now taken.

[Poohbah]

I recall the time they found those fossilized mosquitoes, and before long, they were cloning DNA
Now, I'm being chased by some irate velociraptors, well, believe me, this has been one lousy day.

Jurrasic park is frightning in the dark all the dinosaurs are running wild.
Someone shut the fence off in the rain
I admit it's kinda eerie, but this proves my "Chaos Theory"
And I don't think I'll be coming back again,
Oh noooo!

I cannot approve of this attraction, 'cause getting disembowled always makes me kinda mad.
A huge Tyrannosaurus ate our lawyer, well I suppose that proves they're really not all bad.

Jurrasic park is frightning in the dark
all the dinosaurs are running wild
Someone let T-rex out of his pen.
I'm afraid those things will harm me
Cause they sure don't act like Barney
And they think that I'm their dinner, not their friend
Oh nooo!

**Tortured screams**

Jurrasic park is frightning in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
What a crummy weekend this has been.
Well, this sure ain't no E-ticket
Think I'll tell them where to stick it
'Cause I'm never coming back this way, again!
Oh nooo!!! whoooaahh nooooo!

[Nebullis]

Excellent!

[PatrickHenry]

Anyone care to guess the number of posts before f.Christian appears?

It depends on when his siezures subside and they decide it's save to let him have access to the keyboard. Posting here has a calming effect on him, so his keepers encourage it.

[null and void]

ever the optimist...

[keithtoo]

didn't quite make it to 15. I look forward to more articles on this subject. I expect that, as per the usual, the scientists will find that 'older' versions of man will appear "fully formed and with all of the characteristics of modern man"

The really neat test will be if and when a "lucy" type specimen is examined. It will test out to be either human or ape, not a hybrid. Lets see.

[LiteKeeper]

YEC bump

[dead]

Anyone care to guess the number of posts before f.Christian appears?

I don’t want to speak for him, but I’d imagine he would say something like:

The riderless/homosapien (human) anamoly/Intellectual gristmart

Reguritation (regeneration) seems apt.

Darwin (fish) beats all for soulless/esotericsm/propaganda (mushoganda)!

But I’m just guessing.

[Ahban]

INteresting, but I don't see how it can help in our friendly debates- or all our other debates either!

If a Bison is only 1 acid different from a cow even though a million years separates them, it is not a very precise test. Also, I am pretty sure that there is more than one way to create a given protien. In other words, different genes could make the same protien. All this test measures is the protien, not the gene, so it would miss it when this happened.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

To show the potential of their technique, Nielsen-Marsh and colleagues sequenced the amino acids in osteocalcin extracted from bones of the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) found in permafrost in Siberia and Alaska. Both bones are a minimum of 55,000 years old, the limit of carbon dating.

The complete sequences of amino acids exactly matched that of the modern bison (Bison bison).

Doesn't ID predict that these are all randomly different?

[Junior]

Boy, AndrewC and gore3000 are gonna be pissed. They've been claiming that fossils can tell us nothing about the critters they used to be.

[Aric2000]

index bump

[f.Christian]

To: Nebullis

I suspect the AAAS would like to update the Declaration of Independence to better reflect their view of what should be the foundation of American liberty to:

We hold these outlooks to be best, that all men are evolved, that they are endowed by accident with certain conditional allowances to be determined by us.

America is based on the assumption of God's existence. Throw that out we become just as much of a Hell on earth as was the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.


114 posted on 11/08/2002 8:32 AM PST by Tribune7

[f.Christian]

Creationism is an atavistic holdover from a less-enlightened age of history, and when it attempts to use political power to regain what it has lost by the progress of the human intellect, the gloves come off.


897 posted on 11/13/2002 9:38 AM PST by Right Wing Professor

More like your mask/wheel...coming off---orc/ape/GRUNT 'science'!

[ContentiousObjector]

believe it or not, on other topics f.christian would appear to be capable of writing coherently

the real question is, what the hell happened to Ted Holden?