RATIONALE: Non-enzymatic deamidation accumulates in aging tissues in vivo and has been proposed to be potentially useful as a molecular clock. The process continues post mortem, and here we explore the increase in levels of deamidation in archaeological collagen, as measured during Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) analysis. METHODS: With the high sensitivity of current generation mass spectrometers, ZooMS provides a non-destructive and highly cost-effective method to characterise collagen peptides. Deamidation can be detected by mass spectrometry as a +0.984 Da mass shift; therefore, aside from its original purpose, peptide mass-fingerprinting for bone identification, ZooMS concurrently yields a 'thermal indicator' of the samples. RESULTS: By analysis of conventional ZooMS spectra, we determined the deamidation rate for glutamine residues in 911 bone collagen samples from 50 sites, with ages varying from medieval to Palaeolithic. The degree of deamidation was compared to diagenetic parameters and nearby sequence properties. CONCLUSIONS: The extent of deamidation was found to be influenced more by burial conditions and thermal age than, for example, chronological age, the extent of bioerosion or crystallinity. The method lends itself mostly to screening heterogenic deposits of bone to identify outliers.
RATIONALE: Non-enzymatic deamidation accumulates in aging tissues in vivo and has been proposed to be potentially useful as a molecular clock. The process continues post mortem, and here we explore the increase in levels of deamidation in archaeological collagen, as measured during Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) analysis. METHODS: With the high sensitivity of current generation mass spectrometers, ZooMS provides a non-destructive and highly cost-effective method to characterise collagen peptides. Deamidation can be detected by mass spectrometry as a +0.984 Da mass shift; therefore, aside from its original purpose, peptide mass-fingerprinting for bone identification, ZooMS concurrently yields a 'thermal indicator' of the samples. RESULTS: By analysis of conventional ZooMS spectra, we determined the deamidation rate for glutamine residues in 911 bone collagen samples from 50 sites, with ages varying from medieval to Palaeolithic. The degree of deamidation was compared to diagenetic parameters and nearby sequence properties. CONCLUSIONS: The extent of deamidation was found to be influenced more by burial conditions and thermal age than, for example, chronological age, the extent of bioerosion or crystallinity. The method lends itself mostly to screening heterogenic deposits of bone to identify outliers.
Authors: Ludovic Orlando; Aurélien Ginolhac; Guojie Zhang; Duane Froese; Anders Albrechtsen; Mathias Stiller; Mikkel Schubert; Enrico Cappellini; Bent Petersen; Ida Moltke; Philip L F Johnson; Matteo Fumagalli; Julia T Vilstrup; Maanasa Raghavan; Thorfinn Korneliussen; Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas; Josef Vogt; Damian Szklarczyk; Christian D Kelstrup; Jakob Vinther; Andrei Dolocan; Jesper Stenderup; Amhed M V Velazquez; James Cahill; Morten Rasmussen; Xiaoli Wang; Jiumeng Min; Grant D Zazula; Andaine Seguin-Orlando; Cecilie Mortensen; Kim Magnussen; John F Thompson; Jacobo Weinstock; Kristian Gregersen; Knut H Røed; Véra Eisenmann; Carl J Rubin; Donald C Miller; Douglas F Antczak; Mads F Bertelsen; Søren Brunak; Khaled A S Al-Rasheid; Oliver Ryder; Leif Andersson; John Mundy; Anders Krogh; M Thomas P Gilbert; Kurt Kjær; Thomas Sicheritz-Ponten; Lars Juhl Jensen; Jesper V Olsen; Michael Hofreiter; Rasmus Nielsen; Beth Shapiro; Jun Wang; Eske Willerslev Journal: Nature Date: 2013-06-26 Impact factor: 49.962
Authors: Frido Welker; Matthew J Collins; Jessica A Thomas; Marc Wadsley; Selina Brace; Enrico Cappellini; Samuel T Turvey; Marcelo Reguero; Javier N Gelfo; Alejandro Kramarz; Joachim Burger; Jane Thomas-Oates; David A Ashford; Peter D Ashton; Keri Rowsell; Duncan M Porter; Benedikt Kessler; Roman Fischer; Carsten Baessmann; Stephanie Kaspar; Jesper V Olsen; Patrick Kiley; James A Elliott; Christian D Kelstrup; Victoria Mullin; Michael Hofreiter; Eske Willerslev; Jean-Jacques Hublin; Ludovic Orlando; Ian Barnes; Ross D E MacPhee Journal: Nature Date: 2015-03-18 Impact factor: 49.962
Authors: Elena R Schroeter; Caroline J DeHart; Timothy P Cleland; Wenxia Zheng; Paul M Thomas; Neil L Kelleher; Marshall Bern; Mary H Schweitzer Journal: J Proteome Res Date: 2017-01-23 Impact factor: 4.466