• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.99-108
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• 2008

The paleogenetic analysis has become an increasingly important subject of archaeological, anthropological, biological as well as public interest. Recently, scientific research for human skeletal remains was more activated because of increasing awareness of the valuable archaeological information by the ancient DNA analysis. State of preservation of organic remains vary in different soil and burying environmental condition. Almost all available tissue disappear to analysis ancient DNA of bone in acidic soil caused by climate and geological features in Korea. Many preserved human remains excavated in the 'Heogwakmyo'(limelayered tomb of Chosun Dynasty Period) is able to explain through the relationship between burial conditions and bone survival form the burial method and ceremony. Ancient DNA analysis of excavated human bone form ancient tomb requires to remove contaminants such as microorganism's DNA and soil components that affect authentic results. Particularly, contamination control of contemporary human DNA is major serious problem and should verified by criteria of authenticity. In order to understand migration and culture of ancient population, when possible, ancient DNA studies needs to go abreast both radiocarbon and stable isotope studies because the dietary inferences will suggest ancient subsistence and settlement patterns. Also when the paleogenetic research supported with the arts and humanities research such as physical anthropology and archaeology, more valuable ancient genetic information is providing a unique results about evolutionary and population genetics studies to reconstruct the past.

• 보존과학연구
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• s.25
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• pp.47-74
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• 2004

We investigated the nucleotide substitution and insertion polymorphism of the hypervariable region Ⅰ and Ⅱ in mt DNA by sequencing ancient DNA from 51 ancient bones and teeth excavated at Nuk-do and Yimdang-dong in Korea. It revealed 35 sequence types from the ancient Korean. Of these, different sequences were 34 sequences. There were 19 and 38 base substitutions in HVI and HVⅡ, respectively. Some substitutions were characteristic of East Asian populations as compared with data reported on Caucacianpopulations,16051, 16150, 16172, 16223 in region I and 73, 263 in region II were noted as polymorphic sites, respectively. These were distributed evenly along the control region, though the frequency of each site was variable. Nucleotide substitution rather than insertion and deletion was the prevalent pattern of variation. Insertion of cytosine between312 and 315 in region HVⅡ were detected up to 98% in 51 ancient bone samples. This sequence data represents a phylogenetic tree using NTI DNA Suite computer program. The phylogenetic tree showed that mt DNA sequences of Nuk-do bones were relative to west Siberian and Indonesian. The usefulness of mt DNA sequencing in ancient Korean population excavated atarchaeological sites is based on biological and historical evidence for origin and migration of ancient Korean.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.1141-1150
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• 2022

Objective: To understand the domestication and spread of horses in history, genetic information is essential. However, mitogenetic traits of ancient or medieval horses have yet to be comprehensively revealed, especially for East Asia. This study thus set out to reveal the maternal lineage of skeletal horse remains retrieved from a 15th century archaeological site (Gongpyeongdong) at Old Seoul City in South Korea. Methods: We extracted DNA from the femur of Equus caballus (SNU-A001) from Joseon period Gongpyeongdong site. Mitochondrial (mt) DNA (HRS 15128-16116) of E. caballus was amplified by polymerase chain reaction. Cloning and sequencing were conducted for the mtDNA amplicons. The sequencing results were analyzed by NCBI/BLAST and phylogenetic tool of MEGA7 software. Results: By means of mtDNA cytochrome b and D-loop analysis, we found that the 15th century Korean horse belonged to haplogroup Q representing those horses that have historically been raised widely in East Asia. Conclusion: The horse is unique among domesticated animals for the remarkable impact it has on human civilization in terms of transportation and trade. Utilizing the Joseon-period horse remains, we can obtain clues to reveal the genetic traits of Korean horse that existed before the introduction of Western horses.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2007

DNA extracted from ancient bones of Cervidae animals was examined to identify the species and to determine the phylogenetic relationships to those from extant cervids. Abundant ancient bones were excavated from Kumsung archaeological site in Jeju Island, Korea, and were identified as Cervidae animals based on morphological features of their antlers and lower mandibles. Their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region (CR) was partially sequenced and subsequently compared with those previously reported in database. The results confirmed that the ancient sequences are lineage of Cervidae. On the phylogenetic trees constructed using the sequence diversity of the CR sequences of family Cervidae, the ancient DNA sequences were found on distinct clusters. The ancient sequences were located in the subfamily Capreolinae cluster, and six ancient sequences were closely related to those of extant Korean roe deer in Jeju Island and Korean Peninsula. Consequently, the results of this study suggest that the roe deer inhabited Jeju Island in ancient times. However, there is no evidence for the existence of subfamily Cervinae, including Sika deer, while it has been described in several historical records. The results suggest that this finding could contribute to understanding of the origin and phylogenetic relationships of extant and ancient roe deer on Jeju Island.

• 보존과학연구
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• s.22
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• pp.27-40
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• 2001

DNA typing is often used to determine identity from human remains. Recently, the molecular biological analysis of ancient deposits has become possible since methods for the recovery of DNA conserved in bones or teeth from archaeological remains have been developed. In the field of archaeology, one of the most promising approaches is to identify the individuals present in a mass burial site. We performed nuclear DNA typing and mitochondrial DNA sequencing analysis based on PCR from a Korea ancient human remain excavated from Sa-chon Nuk-island and civilian access controlline(CACL). A femur bone were collected and successfully subjected to DNA extraction, quantification, PCR amplification, and subsequently typed for several shot tandem repeat(STR)loci. 4 types of STR systems used in this study were CTT multiplex(CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01), FFv multiplex(F13A01, FESFPS, vWA), Silver STRⅢ multiplex(D16S539, D7S820, D13S317), and amelogenin for sex determination. This studies are primarily concerned with the extraction, amplification, and DNA typing of ancient human bone DNA samples. Also, it is suggestive of importance about closely relationship between both fields of archaeology and molecular biology.

• 보존과학연구
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• s.29
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• pp.137-148
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• 2008

Analyses of ancient DNA (aDNA) from archaeological and historical skeletal material are characterized by low quality. Many soil contaminants such as humic acid, fulvic acid, and bone collagen are often co-extracted with aDNA and inhibit amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In this study, we compared with two methods of DNA extraction by phenolchloroform extraction and silica-bead extraction. In addition, we applied new protocol, ultra sonication based silica-bead extraction method to extract aDNA from some ancient human skeletal remains. This method was more effective by both mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and amelogenin gene amplification.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.40
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• pp.387-411
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• 2007

The analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) has become increasingly considerable anthropological, archaeological, biological and public interest. Although this approach is complicated by the natural damage and exogenous contamination of a DNA, archaeologists and biologists have attempted to understand issues such as human evolutionary history, migration and social organization, funeral custom and disease, and even evolutionary phylogeny of extinct animals. Polymerase chain reaction(PCR) is powerful technique that analyzes DNA sequences from a little extract of an ancient specimen. However, deamination and fragmentation are common molecular damages of aDNA and cause enzymatic inhibition in PCR for DNA amplification. Besides, the deamination of a cytosine residue yielded an uracil residue in the ancient template, and results in the misincorporation of an adenine residue in PCR. This promotes a consistent substitution (cytosine thymine, guanine adenine) to original nucleotide sequences. Contamination with exogenous DNA is a major problem in aDNA analysis, and causes oversight as erroneous conclusion. This report represents serious problems that DNA modification and contamination are the main issues in result validation of aDNA analysis. Now, we introduce several criterions suggested to authenticate reliance of aDNA analysis by many researchers in this field.

• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2010

We have performed analyses using ancient DNA extracted from 25 excavated human bones, estimating around the 1st century B.C. Ancient human bones were obtained from Nukdo Island, which is located off of the Korean peninsula of East Asia. We made concerted efforts to extract ancient DNA of high quality and to obtain reproducible PCR products, as this was a primary consideration for this extensive kind of undertaking. We performed PCR amplifications for several regions of the mitochondrial DNA, and could determine mitochondrial haplogroups for 21 ancient DNA samples. Genetic information from mitochondrial DNA belonged to super-haplogroup M, haplogroup D or its sub-haplogroups (D4 or D4b), which are distinctively found in East Asians, including Koreans or Japanese. The dendrogram and principal component analysis based on haplogroup frequencies revealed that the Nukdo population was close to those of the East Asians and clearly distinguished from populations shown in the other regions. Considering that Nukdo is geologically isolated in the southern part of the Korean peninsula and is a site of commercial importance with neighboring countries, these results may reflect genetic continuity for the habitation and migration of ethnic groups who had lived in a particular area in the past. Therefore, we suggest that phylogenetic analyses of ancient DNA have significant advantages for clarifying the origins and migrations of ethnic groups, or human races.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.927-933
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• 2021

People have lived with and used animals for various purposes since the Paleolithic age. Therefore, animal bone research is interesting because it can infer the status of use, determine species, and ascertain the uses of animals that lived at the time. An analysis of ancient DNA was attempted to identify the species of ancient animal bones excavated from an archaeological site. Twelve animal bones from the Geumgwan Gaya period, excavated in Bonghwang-dong, Gimhae, were used in this study. After extracting DNA from the sample, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) gene amplification was performed. Species-specific primers of livestock groups such as pig, cattle, and deer were selected and used. This livestock group was a major source of protein for people who lived on the Korean Peninsula at that time. As a result, 11 sample species were identified. This study is contributes to the restoration of past life information by applying biological technologies to archaeological sites. It is also expected that such analyses of biological remains will ultimately be used to restore historical and cultural information.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.345-387
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• 2023

Paleoparasitology is a discipline that applies existing conventional and molecular techniques to study parasites found in ancient ruins. This review focuses on the history of the discovery of parasites (mostly helminth eggs and larvae) in archaeological soil samples and mummies in Korea from the Three Kingdoms Period to the Joseon Dynasty (100 BCE-1910 CE). We also briefly review important milestones in global paleoparasitology. The helminth species reported so far in Korea included Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Strongyloides stercoralis (larva), Trichostrongylus sp. (larva), Paracapillaria philippinensis (syn. Capillaria philippinensis), Enterobius vermicularis, Fasciola hepatica, dicrocoeliids, Paragonimus westermani, Clonorchis sinensis, Metagonimus yokogawai, Pygidiopsis summa, Gymnophalloides seoi, Isthmiophora hortensis, Dibothriocephalus nihonkaiensis (syn. Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense), and Taenia spp. tapeworms. The findings obtained by Korean paleoparasitologists/archaeologists have brought about deep insight into the status of helminthic infections in Korea's past populations. Continued paleoparasitological research is essential for further understanding of ancient parasites and parasitic diseases in Korea.