Ancient DNA from the green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage

We extracted DNA from the powdered tooth root from individual TKH001 and from two fibula fragments from TKH009. Given their extremely low endogenous human DNA content (0.085–1.363%; Supplementary Table 2.1), we opted for a DNA capture approach to cost-effectively retrieve informative single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for autosomal analysis. Sampling of other skeletal elements in the future may provide DNA extracts with higher percentage of endogenous DNA that allow for whole-genome shotgun sequencing. Using dedicated ancient DNA protocols (Methods), we prepared DNA libraries and enriched them through a DNA hybridization approach with the Twist Ancient DNA panel25 targeting 1.4 million SNPs for TKH001 and the 1240K panel26 targeting 1.2 million SNPs for TKH009. Despite challenging preservation conditions, sequencing yielded 881,765 SNPs for TKH001 and 23,317 SNPs for TKH009 (Supplementary Table 2.4). For TKH001, we conducted additional enrichment for 1.7 million SNPs, targeting sit ... Read full article.