RT Journal Article
T1 Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics: Lessons from Venta Micena Fossils.
A1 Torres, Jesús M
A1 Borja, Concepción
A1 Gibert, Luis
A1 Ribot, Francesc
A1 Olivares, Enrique G
K1 ELISA
K1 RIA
K1 VM-0
K1 VM-1960
K1 Venta Micena site
K1 fossil proteins
K1 paleoproteomics
AB Proteomics methods can identify amino acid sequences in fossil proteins, thus making it possible to determine the ascription or proximity of a fossil to other species. Before mass spectrometry was used to study fossil proteins, earlier studies used antibodies to recognize their sequences. Lowenstein and colleagues, at the University of San Francisco, pioneered the identification of fossil proteins with immunological methods. His group, together with Olivares's group at the University of Granada, studied the immunological reactions of proteins from the controversial Orce skull fragment (VM-0), a 1.3-million-year-old fossil found at the Venta Micena site in Orce (Granada province, southern Spain) and initially assigned to a hominin. However, discrepancies regarding the morphological features of the internal face of the fossil raised doubts about this ascription. In this article, we review the immunological analysis of the proteins extracted from VM-0 and other Venta Micena fossils assigned to hominins and to other mammals, and explain how these methods helped to determine the species specificity of these fossils and resolve paleontological controversies.
SN 2079-7737
YR 2022
FD 2022-08-06
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10668/20802
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10668/20802
LA en
DS RISalud
RD Apr 10, 2025