Data from: Evolutionary patterns and processes: lessons from ancient DNA

Ever since its emergence in 1984, the field of ancient DNA has struggled to overcome the challenges related to the decay of DNA molecules in the fossil record. With the recent development of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies and molecular techniques tailored to ultra-damaged templates, it has now come of age, merging together approaches in phylogenomics, population genomics, epigenomics and metagenomics. Leveraging on complete temporal sample series, ancient DNA provides direct access to the most important dimension in evolution - time, allowing a wealth of fundamental evolutionary processes to be addressed at unprecedented resolution. This review taps into the most recent findings in ancient DNA research to present analyses of ancient genomic and metagenomic data.

自1984年问世以来，古DNA（ancient DNA）研究领域便始终致力于克服化石记录中DNA分子降解所引发的各类挑战。近年来，随着高通量DNA测序技术与适配超损伤模板的分子实验技术的发展，古DNA研究现已日趋成熟，整合了系统发育基因组学（phylogenomics）、群体基因组学（population genomics）、表观基因组学（epigenomics）与宏基因组学（metagenomics）的研究方法。依托完整的时序样本序列，古DNA研究能够直接触及进化研究中最为关键的维度——时间维度，使得大量基础进化过程得以以前所未有的分辨率开展探究。本综述梳理了古DNA研究领域的最新进展，对古基因组与宏基因组数据展开了系统性分析。