英國(guó)《每日郵報(bào)》報(bào)道，科學(xué)家表示,，在阿爾卑斯山發(fā)現(xiàn)的一具5300年前的冰川木乃伊——“奧茨冰人”應(yīng)屬于此前不知道的一個(gè)人類族譜分支,。這個(gè)分支的蹤跡可能已經(jīng)消失，意味著“奧茨冰人”不可能擁有任何后代,。
“奧茨冰人”的木乃伊化尸體是1991年9月在奧地利-意大利邊界附近的東阿爾卑斯山被發(fā)現(xiàn)的,，暴卒時(shí)的年齡大約在46歲左右。檢驗(yàn)結(jié)果顯示,，他曾經(jīng)受過箭傷,，死亡原因可能是面部遭受重?fù)簟Ｗ?998年以來,，“奧茨冰人”便在意大利博爾札諾的南蒂羅爾考古學(xué)博物館展出,。目前，科學(xué)家已繪制出“奧茨冰人”線粒體DNA的完整圖像,，線粒體DNA通常由母親傳給下一代,。線粒體相當(dāng)于細(xì)胞中的小型“發(fā)電站”，能夠產(chǎn)生能量,。
在試圖確定“奧茨冰人”屬于人類族譜的哪一個(gè)分支時(shí),，研究小組得出驚人發(fā)現(xiàn)。雖然被歸為一個(gè)名為“K1”的亞群,，但“奧茨冰人”卻不與已知3種K1“簇”中的任何一種匹配,。利茲大學(xué)教授馬丁·理查茲(Martin Richards)表示：“我們的分析結(jié)果證實(shí)‘奧茨冰人’屬于一個(gè)未經(jīng)確認(rèn)的K1宗譜，迄今為止,，這個(gè)宗譜已在歐洲消失了,。遺傳宗譜頻率經(jīng)常隨時(shí)間發(fā)生改變，這種現(xiàn)象由后代的隨機(jī)突變,，也就是所說的‘遺傳漂變’過程導(dǎo)致,。作為這一過程的結(jié)果，一些突變消失了,。我們的研究顯示,，‘奧茨冰人’宗譜可能已經(jīng)滅絕了。”研究發(fā)現(xiàn)刊登在《當(dāng)代生物學(xué)》（Current Biology）雜志上,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Current Biology，doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.09.028,，Luca Ermini, Martin Richards, Franco Rollo
Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequence of the Tyrolean Iceman
Luca Ermini1,3,4,Cristina Olivieri1,4,Ermanno Rizzi2,Giorgio Corti2,Raoul Bonnal2,Pedro Soares3,Stefania Luciani1,Isolina Marota1,Gianluca De Bellis2,Martin B. Richards3andFranco Rollo1,,
1 Laboratorio di Archeo-Antropologia Molecolare/DNA Antico, Dipartimento di Biologia Molecolare, Cellulare e Animale, University of Camerino, 62032 Camerino, Italy
2 Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 20090 Milano, Italy
3 Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT Leeds, UK
SUMMARY
The Tyrolean Iceman was a witness to the NeolithicCopper Age transition in Central Europe 53505100 years ago, and his mummified corpse was recovered from an Alpine glacier on the Austro-Italian border in 1991 . Using a mixed sequencing procedure based on PCR amplification and 454 sequencing of pooled amplification products, we have retrieved the first complete mitochondrial-genome sequence of a prehistoric European. We have then compared it with 115 related extant lineages from mitochondrial haplogroup K. We found that the Iceman belonged to a branch of mitochondrial haplogroup K1 that has not yet been identified in modern European populations. This is the oldest complete Homo sapiens mtDNA genome generated to date. The results point to the potential significance of complete-ancient-mtDNA studies in addressing questions concerning the genetic history of human populations that the phylogeography of modern lineages is unable to tackle.
