Ancient DNA and Genetic Engineering

This book is dedicated to ancient DNA (aDNA) – genetic material of organisms that perished hundreds to many thousands years ago. Only recently a subject of science fiction fantasies, now aDNA brings us vast amounts of invaluable, otherwise inaccessible, knowledge about the extinct species as well as about the past of the extant ones, including our own. The author in a reader-friendly way presents the methods of obtaining and analyzing aDNA and the application of aDNA research in a range of fields, from evolutionary biology through biodiversity conservation to archaeology. Numerous accompanying illustrations guide the reader throughout the text.

Keywords: aDNA, paleogenetics, mtDNA, Y chromosome, evolution of Homo sapiens, genetic engineering, CRISPr-Cas technology.

Prof. dr hab. Piotr Węgleński – Professor is a distinguished Polish geneticist. Between 1999 and 2005 he was Rector of the University of Warsaw.