Papers by eirini skourtanioti
Science, 2021
Ancient DNA traces the history of hepatitis B Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections represent a worl... more Ancient DNA traces the history of hepatitis B Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections represent a worldwide human health concern. To study the history of this pathogen, Kocher et al . identified 137 human remains with detectable levels of virus dating between 400 and 10,000 years ago. Sequencing and analyses of these ancient viruses suggested a common ancestor between 12,000 and 20,000 years ago. There is no evidence indicating that HBV was present in the earliest humans as they spread out of Africa; however, HBV was likely present in human populations before farming. Furthermore, the virus was present in the Americas by about 9000 years ago, representing a lineage sister to the viral strains found in Eurasia that diverged about 20,000 years ago. —LMZ
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PLOS ONE, 2021
The Middle and Late Bronze Age, a period roughly spanning the 2nd millennium BC (ca. 2000–1200 BC... more The Middle and Late Bronze Age, a period roughly spanning the 2nd millennium BC (ca. 2000–1200 BC) in the Near East, is frequently referred to as the first ‘international age’, characterized by intense and far-reaching contacts between different entities from the eastern Mediterranean to the Near East and beyond. In a large-scale tandem study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA of individuals excavated at Tell Atchana (Alalakh, located in Hatay, Turkey), we explored the role of mobility at the capital of a regional kingdom, named Mukish during the Late Bronze Age, which spanned the Amuq Valley and some areas beyond. We generated strontium and oxygen isotope data from dental enamel for 53 individuals and 77 individuals, respectively, and added ancient DNA data of 10 newly sequenced individuals to a dataset of 27 individuals published in 2020. Additionally, we improved the DNA coverage of one individual from this 2020 dataset. The DNA data revealed a very homogeneous gene pool. This pi...
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Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of t... more Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of the Y chromosome (NRY), have been used for the past 30 years to investigate the history of humans from a maternal and paternal perspective.Researchers have preferred mtDNA due to its abundance in the cells, and comparatively high substitution rate. Conversely, the NRY is less susceptible to back mutations and saturation, and is potentially more informative than mtDNA owing to its longer sequence length. However, due to comparatively poor NRY coverage via shotgun sequencing, and the relatively low and biased representation of Y-chromosome variants on capture arrays such as the 1240K, ancient DNA studies often fail to utilize the unique perspective that the NRY can yield.Here we introduce a new DNA enrichment assay, coined YMCA (Y-mappable capture assay), that targets the “mappable” regions of the NRY. We show that compared to low-coverage shotgun sequencing and 1240K capture, YMCA signific...
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protocols.io, 2020
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protocols.io, 2019
Silica-based total DNA extraction protocol optimised for the recovery of ultra-short DNA molecule... more Silica-based total DNA extraction protocol optimised for the recovery of ultra-short DNA molecules from skeletal material powder (e.g. bone, teeth), modified from Dabney et al. (2013) PNAS (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1314445110).
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protocols.io, 2020
Silica-based total DNA extraction protocol optimised for the recovery of ultra-short DNA molecule... more Silica-based total DNA extraction protocol optimised for the recovery of ultra-short DNA molecules from archaeological dental calculus, modified from Dabney et al. (2013) PNAS (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1314445110) and adapted for dental calculus by Mann et al. (2018) Scientific Reports (doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-28091-9).
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The Middle and Late Bronze Age Near East, a period roughly spanning the second millennium BC (ca.... more The Middle and Late Bronze Age Near East, a period roughly spanning the second millennium BC (ca. 2000-1200 BC), is frequently referred to as the first ‘international age’, characterized by intense and far-reaching contacts between different entities from the eastern Mediterranean to the Near East and beyond. In a large-scale tandem study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA of individuals excavated at Tell Atchana (Alalakh), situated in the northern Levant, we explore the role of mobility at the capital of a regional kingdom. We generated strontium isotope data for 53 individuals, oxygen isotope data for 77 individuals, and added ancient DNA data from 9 new individuals to a recently published dataset of 28 individuals. A dataset like this, from a single site in the Near East, is thus far unparalleled in terms of both its breadth and depth, providing the opportunity to simultaneously obtain an in-depth view of individual mobility and also broader demographic insights into the resident...
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Cell, 2020
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Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, Jan 5, 2014
Although several recent studies have investigated the major phylogenetic relationships within Hyn... more Although several recent studies have investigated the major phylogenetic relationships within Hynobiidae, their evolutionary history remains partially resolved and the phylogenetic positions of some genera, particularly Pachyhynobius and Salamandrella are still disputed. Notably, previous studies relied primarily on mitochondrial DNA data and concatenated analyses; thus, a new investigation based on multiple nuclear genes and species-tree inference is needed. Here, we provide an in-depth phylogenetic analysis, based on 29 nuclear genes comprising 29,232bp of data from a comprehensive taxonomic sampling (24 hynobiids and 7 outgroups), using both concatenated and species-tree methods. Our results robustly resolved most genus-level relationships within Hynobiidae, including the placement of Salamandrella as the sister group to a clade containing Batrachuperus, Liua and Pseudohynobius, and the placement of Pachyhynobius as the sister group to a clade containing all hynobiids excluding O...
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Current Biology
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Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013
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Conference Presentations by eirini skourtanioti
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Papers by eirini skourtanioti
Conference Presentations by eirini skourtanioti