Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:47:19.631Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

DNA in charred wheat grains from the Iron Age hillfort at Danebury, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2015

Robin G. Allaby
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry & Applied Molecular Biology, UMIST, Manchester M60 1QD, England
Martin K. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, England
Terence A. Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry & Applied Molecular Biology, UMIST, Manchester M60 1QD, England

Abstract

The genetic history of wheat is the story of the world's temperate staple food. Arcahaeologically, charred grains are the common way wheat is preserved. Study of burnt spelt wheat from the British Iron Age shows DNA is present, and begins to shows the wheat's character.

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, O.D., Greene, F.C. Yip, R.E. Halford, N.G. Shewry, R.R. & Malpica-Romero, J.-M. 1989. Nucleotide sequences of two high-molecular-weight glutenin genes from the D–genome of a hexaploid bread wheat, Triticum aestivum L. cv Cheyenne, Nucleic Acids Research 17: 461–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birnboim, H.C. & Doly, J. 1979. A rapid alkaline extraction method for screening recombinant plasmid DNA, Nucleic Acids Research 7: 1513–23.Google Scholar
Brown, T.A. & Brown, K.A. 1992. Ancient DNA and the archaeologist, Antiquity 66: 1023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, T.A., Allaby, R.G. Brown, K.A. & Jones, M.K. 1993. Biomolecular archaeology of wheat: past, present and future, World Archaeology 25: 6473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ciaffi, M., Lafiandra, D. Porceddu, E. & Benedettelli, S. 1993. Storage–protein variation in wild emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides) from Jordan and Turkey. I. Electrophoretic characterization of genotypes, Theoretical and Applied Genetics 86: 474–80.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B. (ed.). 1984. Danebury: an Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire. London: ouncil for British Archaeology. Research report 52.Google Scholar
Flavell, R.B., Goldsbrough, A.P. Robert, L.S. Schnick, D. & Thompson, R.D. 1989. Genetic variation in wheat HMW glutenin subunits and the molecular basis of bread making quality, Biotechnology 7: 1281–5.Google Scholar
Forde, J., Malpica, J.-M. Halford, N.G. Shewry, P.R. Anderson, O.D. Greene, F.C. & Miflin, B.F. 1985. Nucleotide sequence of a HMW glutenin subunit gene located on chromosome 1A of wheat [Triticum aestivum L.), Nucleic Acids Research 13: 6817–32.Google Scholar
Golenberg, E.M. 1991. Amplification and analysis of Miocene plant fossil DNA, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (series B) 333: 419–27.Google Scholar
Golenberg, E.M., Giannasi, D.E. Clegg, M.T. Smiley, C.J. Durbin, M. Henderson, D. & Zurawski, G. 1990. Chloroplast DNA sequence from a Miocene Magnolia species, Nature 344: 656–8.Google Scholar
Goloubinoff, P., Pääbo, S. & Wilson, A.C. 1993. Evolution of maize inferred from sequence diversity of an adh2 gene segment from archaeological specimens, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 90: 1997–2001.Google Scholar
Halford, N.G., Forde, J. Anderson, O.D. Greene, F.C. & Shewry, P.R. 1987. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence of an HMW glutenin subunit gene from chromosome IB of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and comparison with those of genes from chromosomes 1A and ID, Theoretical and Applied Genetics 75: 117–26.Google Scholar
Harris, D.R. & Hillman, G.C. 1991. Foraging and farming: the evolution of plant exploitation. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Jacomet, S. & Schlichterle, H. 1984. Der kleine Pfahlbauweizen Oswald Heer’s - Neue Untersuchungen zur Morphologie neolithischer Nack-weizenähren, in van Zeist&Caspari (1984): 15376.Google Scholar
Jones, G. 1987. Agricultural practice in Greek history, Annual of the British School at Athens 82: 115–23.Google Scholar
Jones, G., Wardle, K.A. Halstead, P. & Wardle, D. 1986. Crop storage at Assiros, Scientific American 254(3): 95103.Google Scholar
Jones, M.K. 1984. The plant remains, in Cunliffe (1984): 483–95.Google Scholar
Klslev, M.E. 1984. Botanical evidence for ancient naked wheats, in van Zeist&Caspari (1984): 141––52.Google Scholar
Lindahl, T. 1993. Instability and decay of the primary structure of DNA, Nature 362: 709–15.Google Scholar
Nye, S. & Jones, M.K. 1991. The plant remains: a quantitative analysis of crop debris, in Cunliffe, B. (ed.), Danebury: an Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire: 439–47. London: Council for British Archaeology. Research report 73.Google Scholar
PääBO, S. 1989. Ancient DNA: extraction, characterization, molecular cloning, and enzymatic amplification, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 86: 1939–43.Google Scholar
Payne, P.I. 1987. Genetics of wheat storage proteins and the effect of allelic variation on bread-making quality, Annual Review of Plant Physiology 38: 141–53.Google Scholar
Rogers, S.O. & Bendich, A.J. 1985. Extraction of DNA from milligram amounts of fresh herbarium and mummified plant tissues, Plant Molecular Biology 5: 6976.Google Scholar
Rollo, F., Venanzi, F.M. & Amici, A. 1991. Nucleic acids in mummified plant seeds: biochemistry and molecular genetics of pre-Columbian maize, Genetical Research 58: 193201.Google Scholar
Rowley-conwy, P. 1991. Sorghum from Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia, c. 800 BC-AD 1811: a preliminary study, in Renfrew, J.M. (ed.), New light on early farming: 191212. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Saiki, R.K., Gelfand, D.H. Stoffel, S. Scharf, S.J. Higuchi, R. Horn, G.T. Mullís, K.B. & Erlich, H.A. 1988. Primer-directed enzymatic amplification of DNA with a thermostable DNA polymerase, Science 239: 487–91.Google Scholar
Sanger, F., Nicklen, S. & Coulson, A.R. 1977. DNA sequencing with chain–terminating inhibitors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 74: 5463–7.Google Scholar
Scott, A.C. 1989. Observations on the nature and origin of fusain, International Journal of Coal Geology 12:443–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soltis, P.S., Soltis, D.E.& Smiley, C.J. 1992. AnrbcLsequence from a Miocene Taxodium (bald cypress), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 89: 499501.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thompson, R.D., Bartels, D.& Harberd, P. 1985. Nucleotide sequence of a gene from chromosome ID of wheat encoding a HMW–glutenin subunit, Nucleic Acids Research 13: 6833–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Zeist, W. & Caspari, W.A. (ed.). 1984. Plants and ancient man: studies in palaeoethnobotany. Rotterdam: A.A.Balkema.Google Scholar