Genome-wide SNP typing of ancient DNA: Determination of hair and eye color of Bronze Age humans from their skeletal remains

Genome-wide SNP typing of ancient DNA: Determination of hair and eye color of Bronze Age humans from their skeletal remains 

This paper used SNP typing method to determine hair and eye color using ancient and degraded DNA. SNPs are good markers when studying phenotypes. This method would be beneficial in forensics, requiring only a minimal amount of DNA (ex. unknown persons involved in water or fire damage). This study looked at a prehistoric European population to determine hair and eye colors of 59 individuals. The remains date back to the Bronze Age (~3,000 years old), and extracted DNA from teeth, petrosal bone, femurs, and tibias with excellent preservation (even full STR typing). They were able to identify hair and eye color for 38 out of 59 individuals. While there were some issues (deviating results, allelic dropouts), this method shows that with some alternations, like increasing DNA in amplification, that this could be a beneficial method for studying phenotypic traits of an entire prehistoric population. 

I linked the article since the charts encompass several pages with the results of probable hair and eye colors.

Kailie Batsche

AJPA Journal Update May 2020

Authors: Nicole Schmidt, Katharina Schücker, Michael Klintschar, Susanne Hummel

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajpa.23996