人类学学报 ›› 2025, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (05): 917-926.doi: 10.16359/j.1000-3193/AAS.2025.0069cstr: 32091.14.j.1000-3193/AAS.2025.0069

• 同位素、孢粉、古蛋白 • 上一篇    

安徽东至华龙洞遗址动物化石蛋白质保存状况初探

唐思源1,2(), 刘驷统1,2, 周凯1, 饶慧芸1, 吴秀杰1, 付巧妹1,2()   

  1. 1.中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所,脊椎动物演化与人类起源重点实验室,北京 100044
    2.中国科学院大学,北京 100049
  • 收稿日期:2025-04-07 修回日期:2025-07-10 出版日期:2025-10-15 发布日期:2025-10-13
  • 通讯作者: 付巧妹,研究员,主要从事分子古生物学研究。E-mail: fuqiaomei@ivpp.ac.cn
  • 作者简介:唐思源,硕士研究生,主要研究方向为分子古生物学研究。E-mail: tangsiyuan24@mails.ucas.ac.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家重点研发计划项目(2022YFF0903800);中国科学院稳定支持基础研究领域青年团队计划(YSBR-019);国家自然科学基金(41925009)

A preliminary study of protein preservation in animal fossils from the Hualongdong site in Dongzhi County, Anhui

TANG Siyuan1,2(), LIU Sitong1,2, ZHOU Kai1, RAO Huiyun1, WU Xiujie1, FU Qiaomei1,2()   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049
  • Received:2025-04-07 Revised:2025-07-10 Online:2025-10-15 Published:2025-10-13

摘要:

安徽东至华龙洞遗址处于东亚直立人向早期智人过渡的关键时段,古人类化石的形态学研究表明其可能代表了东亚最早的准现代人。本文通过研究华龙洞遗址动物化石的蛋白质保存状况来评估遗址化石的保存状况,旨在不破坏古人类化石的情况下对遗址的蛋白质保存情况有初步了解。本研究选取了与该遗址已出土古人类化石同为1号地点出土的49例未知物种的动物化石进行分析,研究结果表明,骨骼样品40例均没有内源性的胶原蛋白特征峰,牙本质样品9例中的2例发现有丰富的胶原蛋白特征峰;牙釉质样品7例中的6例样品检测到内源性的特定肽段信号。综上,华龙洞遗址部分牙齿样品的蛋白质保存情况较好,可以进行大规模的古人类化石筛选工作,遗址的蛋白质保存情况支持对华龙洞遗址古人类化石的进一步分析。

关键词: 蛋白质保存, 华龙洞遗址, 红外光谱, 质谱检测

Abstract:

The Hualongdong(HLD) site (30°06′34″N, 116°56′54″E, 40 m above sea level) is located in Dongzhi County, Anhui Province, China. Dated to 331~275 ka, it corresponds to the critical transition period from Homo erectus to early Homo sapiens in East Asia. Morphological studies of its hominin fossils suggest that these remains may represent the earliest pre-modern humans in the region.This study adopted a strategy of evaluating the protein preservation of animal fossils to preliminarily assess the overall protein preservation in the same site, aiming to investigate the feasibility of proteomic analysis for Hualongdong hominins without damaging hominin specimens. In this study, we analyzed 49 teeth and femoral bone specimens excavated from No.1 Site, which is the same site where the ancient human fossils were discovered.Mass spectrometry analysis detected no endogenous collagen markers in any of the 40 bone samples. Among nine dentine samples, two exhibited abundant collagen-specific peptide markers. Enamel protein analysis detected endogenous peptide signals in six out of seven enamel samples. These results indicate that part of dental specimens from Hualongdong site retain sufficient endogenous proteins to support large-scale screening of hominin fossils, thereby enabling further proteomic analysis of hominin fossils from this critical site to help track east Asian human evolution.

Key words: Protein preservation, Hualongdong site, infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry

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