Rafal Marek Gutaker

The paper isolates DNA from seed embryos of historical plant specimens to improve ancient DNA quality for whole genome sequencing, finding embryos provide better DNA preservation than leaves in some species.

The paper analyzes historical rice seeds from the 1950s to show pre-modern genetic structure in indica landraces, revealing a distinct northern Vietnamese lineage and a genetic continuum in southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.

The paper analyzes DNA degradation in herbarium specimens over time and environments, finding faster decay rates compared to archaeological samples and highlighting environmental factors as key drivers.

This paper shows host DNA has little impact on metagenomic classification and proposes a two-step k-mer approach to improve microbial signal recovery from historical samples.

This study examines how climate change affects fonio millet germination and suitability for cultivation in West Africa, predicting a 10% decline in suitable areas and a 5% increase in some regions.