Schmutzi - Software for Identifying Contamination in Ancient DNA

Earlier this month, Gabriel Renaud (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig) et al announced their release of software for estimating contamination in ancient human DNA. Named "Schmutzi," the program is written in C++ and is available for free download from the MPI Evolutionary Anthropology website. Analysing deamination---which is expected to be higher in ancient DNA than in modern---and the distribution of fragment lengths, Schmutzi compares hypothetical ancient mitochondrial genome reconstructions to possible contaminant modern genomes. The result is an estimation of contamination, as well as a consensus reconstruction of the ancient mtDNA genome. The program recognises differences between the sample aDNA and databased possible contaminant sequences one nucleotide at a time, with purported greater accuracy than any equivalent code to date; running on a PC, one to three hours are required for the analysis of one million base pairs.

Fig. 1 - A human (left) and Neanderthal (right) skull; the new program 'Schmutzi' from the Max Planck Institute may assist future studies of DNA from these close hominin cousins. (photo WikimediaCommons/DrMikeBaxter)

Source article published in Genome Biology Nov 2015