Abstract: We report here that isolation of DNA from ancient rice seed found in the archaeological excavation (1,200 years old), which were preserved in a low amount of oxidants. A single ancient rice seed contained 50-100 ng of DNA which was half the amount of DNA extractable from a single living seed using the same extraction procedure. The DNA fragments from the ancient seed were recovered as 15-20 kbp fragments which were a little smaller than intact DNA. The extracted DNA was used as template of PCR reaction with primers against the rice phytochrome gene. Although the expected and unknown fragments were amplified at the same time, this result showed that the ancient DNA was active as a template of thermostable DNA polymerase. This suggests that PCR will be useful for the analysis of ancient rice seeds.

Key words: Oryza sativa, Polymerase chain reaction, Ancient rice seed, Molecular archaeology

摘要： 在东南亚地区已发掘出很多古代稻谷，如果能从这些古稻谷中把DNA提出加以分析，可以得到有关栽培稻的系统分化和地理传播方面的直接信息。古代稻种的基因型相当复杂，必须要能从单粒种子开始分析，方能得到有价值的资料。为此，我们进行了从单粒古稻谷中提取DNA的研究工作。本研究采用通常提取植物组织中DNA的方法，从在日本挖掘出的古代稻谷单粒种子中提取出了50-100 ng左右的DNA片段。以这些DNA作为模扳，用聚合酶链式反应(Polymerase Chain Reaction，PCR)技术将DNA加以扩增．由其中几个DNA片段初步合成了相当于水稻光敏色素基因的DNA序列。

关键词: 水稻, 聚合酶链式反应, 古代稻谷, 分子考古学