AUTHOR=Voong Canh P. , Spencer Patrick S. , Navarrete Cristina V. , Turner David , Hayrabedyan Soren B. , Crummy Philip , Holloway Emma , Wilson Mike T. , Smith Patricia R. , Fernández Nelson TITLE=HLA-DR Genotyping and Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Reveal the Presence of Family Burials in a Fourth Century Romano-British Christian Cemetery JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2017.00182 DOI=10.3389/fgene.2017.00182 ISSN=1664-8021 ABSTRACT=

In Colchester, Britain's oldest recorded town, during the Roman period there were areas which were clearly used solely as cemeteries. One of the most significant is at Butt Road, which includes a late Roman probable Christian cemetery with an associated building, apparently a church, that overlies and developed from a pagan inhumation cemetery. DNA was extracted from the long bones (femurs) of 29 individuals, mostly from a large complex of burials centered on two timber vaults. These were thought to comprise a number of family groupings, deduced from osteological analysis, stratigraphical and other considerations. The use of a modified version of the silica-based purification method recovered nanogram quantities of DNA/gram of bone. Two-stage amplification, incorporating primer-extension preamplification-polymerase chain reaction, permitted simultaneous amplification of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. Sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes yielded human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR typing of seven samples, with four revealing the infrequent HLA-DR10 genotype. Examination of the control region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) by direct sequencing revealed polymorphisms yet to be reported in the modern population. HLA-DRB typing and mtDNA analysis affirmatively supported kinship among some, if not all, individuals in the “vault complex” and demonstrate a continental European origin of the individuals investigated.