Ancient oak DNA preserved in subfossil and archaeological European white oak wood

This study explores the potential of waterlogged wood for palaeogenomic studies on temperate trees taking European white oaks as a case study. We extract DNA from subfossil and archaeological oak wood remains spread across Europe with ages ranging between 550 and 9,800 years based on which we sequence 140 genomic libraries. We analyze the endogenous/exogenous DNA content and DNA degradation patterns, and identify ancient maternal haplotypes that we compare to haplotypes of extant populations found in the vicinity of the ancient wood excavation sites.