Genomic identification in the historical case of the Nicholas II royal family
- Evgeny I. Rogaeva,b,c,d,1,
- Anastasia P. Grigorenkob,d,
- Yuri K. Moliakab,
- Gulnaz Faskhutdinovab,
- Andrey Goltsovd,
- Arlene Lahtie,
- Curtis Hildebrandte,
- Ellen L. W. Kittlerf and
- Irina Morozovaa
- aDepartment of Genomics and Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Science, Gubkina Street, 3, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation;
- bBrudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 303 Belmont Street, Worcester, MA 01604;
- cFaculty of Bioinformatics and Bioengineering, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation;
- dResearch Center of Mental Health, Russian Academy of Medical Science, Zagorodnoe Shosse 2/2, Moscow, 113152, Russia;
- eMolecular World, Inc., Thunder Bay, ON, Canada P7B 2T1; and
- fUniversity of Massachusetts Medical School, Center for AIDS Research, Worcester, MA 01605
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Communicated by James D. Watson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, November 14, 2008 (received for review October 8, 2008)
Abstract
Accurate unambiguous identification of ancient or historical specimens can potentially be achieved by DNA analysis. The controversy surrounding the fate of the last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, and his family has persisted, in part, because the bodies of 2 children, Prince Alexei and 1 of his sisters, have not been found. A grave discovered in 1991 contained remains putatively identified as those of the Russian Royal family. However, not all family members were represented. Here, we report the results of genomic analyses of new specimens, the human remains of 2 burned skeletons exhumed from a grave discovered in July 2007, and the results of a comprehensive genomic analysis of remains from the 1991 discovery. Additionally, ≈117 years old archival blood specimens from Nicholas II were obtained and genotyped, which provided critical material for the specific determination of individual identities and kinship identifications. Results of genotypic analyses of damaged historical specimens were evaluated alongside samples from descendants of both paternal and maternal lineages of the European Royal families, and the results conclusively demonstrate that the recently found remains belong to children of Nicholas II: Prince Alexei and his sister. The results of our studies provide unequivocal evidence that the remains of Nicholas II and his entire family, including all 5 children, have been identified. We demonstrate that convergent analysis of complete mitochondrial genome sequences combined with nuclear DNA profiles is an efficient and conclusive method for individual and kinship identification of specimens obtained from old historic relics.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rogaev{at}vigg.ru
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Author contributions: E.I.R. designed research; E.I.R., A.P.G., Y.K.M., G.F., A.G., A.L., C.H., E.L.W.K., and I.M. performed research; E.I.R., A.P.G., Y.K.M., and G.F. analyzed data; and E.I.R., A.P.G., and Y.K.M. wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
