Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
Tracing genetic change over time using nuclear SNPs in ancient and modern cattle
E M Svensson1, C Anderung, J Baubliene
1Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. emma.svensson@ebc.uu.se
Abstract:
Ancient DNA has the potential of adding the dimension of time to genetic studies. With a suitable sample set it should be possible to follow genetic changes over time as they occur. To date, only a limited number of ancient DNA studies that cover a large time span have been published, and all of these studies have used mitochondrial DNA. Here, we explore SNP typing as a way to access ancient coding nuclear genes. By targeting fragments of minimal size, we typed three polymorphic sites in 111 ancient cattle remains spanning some 4000 years. We showed that there has been a decrease in heterozygosity over time, especially since the late Middle Ages. We conclude that SNPs can be used to generate a time series for nuclear markers from ancient material, and thereby to study selection on genes over time.
Related Concept Videos
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Comparing Copy Number Variations and SNPs
Copy number variations or CNVs are the structural variations that cover more than 1kb of DNA sequence. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), on the other hand, is a single nucleotide change or a point mutation that is found in more than 1%...
Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...
Synteny and Evolution
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral chromosome underwent...
