Ancient DNA
By Madison Miederhoff
In a rare occurrence, DNA was extracted from the teeth of Ashkenazi Jews from medieval Erfurt, Germany. After analyzing the DNA it was found that the Jewish community then was more diverse than the Jewish community now. It was also found that one-third of the population had the same sequence in their mitochondrial DNA meaning that ⅓ of the Erfurt community descended from the same woman through their maternal lineage. A third discovery from the newfound DNA is that 1 out of 8 of the individuals carried that same disease-causing gene mutation that is found in modern-day Ashkenazi Jews (and isn’t found in any other group).
What are ways other cultures that may be able to be identified due to their DNA?
Due to Jewish law the dead are not allowed to be disturbed (the teeth were only allowed to be tested because they had already fallen out), if it were allowed what are other things that could be analysed to tell more about the lives of the medieval Ashkenazi Jews?
How can what we learned from the teeth be used by scientists?
Picture: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867422013782
Article: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221130114511.htm
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