What is ancient DNA?

Ancient DNA is defined as DNA molecule extracted from organism material which is known to live before present. How old should "ancient" material be? There is no lower limit. For example, if we study RNA virus such as influenza or HIV, even less than one year old material may be used. It may also be noted that DNA extrated from relatively recent material such as museum specimen is sometimes called "aged DNA".

What is BP?

"BP" is abbreviation of "before present", and we set BP 0 as 2000AD in Ancient DNA DataBase.

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Last updated: 8/2/00