"This book is intended for a variety of readers, including upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, professionals, and experts in the field, as well as anyone excited by the extraordinary insights that paleogenomics offers. This well-written volume is for well-read undergraduate students, and is definitely a good read for graduate students and professionals." (Lorin R. King, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 95 (4), December, 2020)
Preface.
PART I – Perspectives and Applications
1 Paleogenomics: perspectives for population genomics and evolutionary biology
Charlotte Lindqvist, University at Buffalo, NY
2 DNA degradation and applications - a current overview
Nadin Rohland, Harvard Medical School, MA
3 Epigenetic patterns in paleogenomes
Jakob Skou Pedersen, Aarhus University, Denmark
4 Ancient RNA
Thomas Gilbert, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
PART II - Ancient Metagenomics and Pathogen Evolution
5 Ancient viruses (HIV)
Hendrik Poinar, McMaster University, Canada
6 Ancient pathogen genomics
Anne Stone, Arizona State University, AZ
7 Metagenomic reconstruction of ancient environments
Eske Willerslev, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
8 Ancient peat sediments and reconstruction of floras
Laura Parducci, Uppsala University, Sweden
PART III - Plant and Animal Paleogenomics
9 Archaeobotany and crop adaptation
Robin Allaby, University of Warwick, UK
10 Reconstructing ancestral plant genomes
David Sankorff, University of Ottawa, Canada; Victor Albert, University at Buffalo, NY
11 Extinction of ice age mammals
Love Dalen, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden
12 Evolution of animal domestication
Greger Larson, University of Oxford, UK
13 Horse evolution
Ludovic Orlando, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
14 Arctic mammals: Polar bear evolution
Charlotte Lindqvist, University at Buffalo, NY
PART IV - Primate and Human Evolution
15 Primate paleogenomics
George Perry, Penn State University, PA
16 Genomes of extinct hominins
Svante Paabo, Marx Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
17 Structural variants in ancient genomes
Omer Gokcumen, University at Buffalo, NY
Vincent Lynch, University of Chicago, IL; Stephan Schuster, Nanyang University, Singapore
19 High altitude adaptation in humans
Rasmus Nielsen, University of Berkeley, CA
Index.
Dr. Charlotte Lindqvist
Associate Professor
University at Buffalo (SUNY)
Department of Biological Sciences
Buffalo, NY
USA
Dr. Om P. Rajora
Professor
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, NB E3C 5A3
Canada
Advances in genome-scale DNA sequencing technologies have revolutionized genetic research on ancient organisms, extinct species, and past environments. When it is recoverable after hundreds or thousands of years of unintended preservation, “ancient DNA” (or aDNA) is often highly degraded, necessitating specialized handling and analytical approaches. Paleogenomics defines the field of reconstructing and analyzing the genomes of historic or long-dead organisms, most often through comparison with modern representatives of the same or similar species. The opportunity to isolate and study paleogenomes has radically transformed many fields, spanning biology, anthropology, agriculture, and medicine. Examples include understanding evolutionary relationships of extinct species known only from fossils, the domestication of plants and animals, and the evolution and geographical spread of certain pathogens. This pioneering book presents a snapshot view of the history, current status, and future prospects of paleogenomics, taking a broad viewpoint that covers a range of topics and organisms to provide an up-to-date status of the applications, challenges, and promise of the field. This book is intended for a variety of readerships, including upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, professionals and experts in the field, as well as anyone excited by the extraordinary insights that paleogenomics offers.