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Sample Preparation in Biological Mass Spectrometry pp 925–938Cite as

Revisiting Jurassic Park: The Isolation of Proteins from Amber Encapsulated Organisms Millions of Years Old

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Abstract

Dominican Republic amber from the Oligo-Miocene epoch, 20–40 million years ago, was interrogated for residual protein. Tandem mass spectrometric analysis of trypsin digests of proteins from two silver-stained bands excised from SDS-PAGE led to the identification of 84 peptides from 19 Saccharomyces proteins. All peptides were identified from one high molecular weight gel band, suggesting a high degree of cross-linking of these proteins. This study reports the first experimental data on the identification of prehistoric proteins from amber.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from Fondazione Cariplo (Milano) and PRIN 2008 (PGR and GBS), a research development grant from COLSA at UNH and the NH Agricultural Experiment Station (FC). GBS is an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire. GBS received additional support from the Novel Clinical and Translational Methodologies Program of Harvard Catalyst, The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (NIH Award #UL1 RR 025758) and financial contributions from Harvard University and its affiliated academic health care centers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Gary B. Smejkal

  2. Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    George O. Poinar Jr

  3. Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Pier Giorgio Righetti

  4. Department of Molecular, Cellular & Biomedical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    Feixia Chu

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  1. Gary B. Smejkal
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  2. George O. Poinar Jr
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  3. Pier Giorgio Righetti
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  4. Feixia Chu
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Correspondence to Gary B. Smejkal or Feixia Chu .

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  1. , Department of Genetics and Complex Disea, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard, Huntington Ave., SPH-1 665, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Alexander R. Ivanov

  2. , Research and Development, Pressure BioSciences, Inc., Norfolk Ave. 14, South Easton, 02375, Massachusetts, USA

    Alexander V. Lazarev

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Smejkal, G.B., Poinar, G.O., Righetti, P.G., Chu, F. (2011). Revisiting Jurassic Park: The Isolation of Proteins from Amber Encapsulated Organisms Millions of Years Old. In: Ivanov, A., Lazarev, A. (eds) Sample Preparation in Biological Mass Spectrometry. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0828-0_45

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