The first ancient epigenome

We have been part of this pioneering study of the epigenetic state a 4000-old human, published in Genome Research.

Recent advances in ancient DNA research have allowed the sequencing of complete ancient genomes from short DNA molecules preserved in the fossil record for thousands, and sometimes even hundreds of thousands, of years. It was unknown, however, whether ancient epigenomes could be reconstructed. In this issue, the first ancient epigenome is reconstructed using DNA sequence information retrieved from the hairs of a 4000-yr-old Paleo-Eskimo individual.