Diane Lister

Contact Information

Diane Lister
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
University of Cambridge
Downing Street
Cambridge CB2 3ER

Tel.: +44 (0)1223 339330
Fax: +44 (0)1223 339285
E-mail: dll1000 [at] cam.ac.uk

Post-Doctoral Researcher in Archaeogenetics

Dr Diane Lister

Projects

Food globalization in prehistory (FOGLIP)

I am a post-doctoral researcher employed on the multi-disciplinary ERC funded project “Food globalization in prehistory (FOGLIP)”. I am studying the spread of the Southwest Asian crops wheat and barley eastwards into East Asia.

My research involves the phylogeographical analysis of genetic diversity in barley and wheat landraces from across Eurasia. The material I work on primarily comes from germplasm collections; however, additional material from historic sources and archaeological sites allows an element of time depth to be added to the data that is generated from extant material.

Mapping the observed genetic diversity of cereal landraces across space and time allows us to trace the prehistoric spread of agriculture from Southwest Asia eastwards across the Eurasian continent. I am interested in the routes by which these cereals spread and the impact of environmental barriers on the transition to farming economies. My research utilizes neutral markers such as microsatellites and markers associated with important domestication traits, environmental adaptation and grain quality.
Tracing the spread of cereal cultivation not only informs us about the past distributions of the plants themselves, but also the people groups that transported them.

The use of historic DNA in phylogeographic studies
Historic material is an important additional source of genetic data for phylogeographic studies of the spread of agriculture. In our study of extant and historic European cereal landrace distribution showed that extant landraces are largely confined to rugged upland areas unsuitable for mechanized agriculture. In other parts of Europe relatively few landraces survive as collections were not made before their demise and were replaced by scientifically bred varieties. Historic material collected prior to periods of significant agrarian change is able to fill in gaps in extant landrace distribution.

I have been interested in determining the degree of DNA preservation in various types of material and hence its usefulness in genetic studies. DNA extraction from straw has proved to be very difficult partly due to inhibitors found in materials such as animal dung, which is often used in daub, and smoke blackening found in mediaeval thatch. Grain from old seed banks and herbarium specimens, however, is proving to be a very good source of relatively undamaged DNA, which can be analyzed using a wide range of genetic markers including SNPs and microsatellites.

Barley landraces collected from Gansu Province, China. Germplasm for genetic study mainly comes from various germplasm collections; however, some material is field collected.

Charred wheat and barley grains from an irrigation channel in Gansu province, China (Donghuishan site, 2000 BC)

Herbarium specimens of barley

Publications

Oliveira HR, Jones H, Leigh F, Lister DL, Jones MK, Peña-Chocarro L. 2011. Phylogeography of einkorn landraces in the Mediterranean basin and Central Europe: population structure and cultivation history. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences  3:327–341

Oliveira HR, Civán P, Morales J, Rodriguez-Rodriguez A, Lister DL and Jones MK (2012 - in press) Ancient DNA in archaeological wheat grains: Preservation conditions and the study of pre-Hispanic agriculture on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain) Journal of Archaeological Science.

Jones MK, Hunt H, Lightfoot E, Lister D, Liu X and Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute G (2011) Food globalisation in prehistory World Archaeology 43: 665–675

Oliveira HR, Lister DL, and Jones MK. Phylogeography of cereal landraces and the spread of agriculture in Northwest Africa: review and prospects. Journal of African Archaeology. In press.

Li CX, Lister DL, Li HJ, Xu Y, Cui Y, Bower MA, Jones MK and Zhou H (2011) Ancient DNA analysis of desiccated wheat grains excavated from a Bronze Age cemetery in Xinjiang Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 115–119

Campana MG, Lister DL, Whitten CM, Edwards CJ, Stock F, Barker G and Bower MA (2011) Complex relationships between  mitochondrial and nuclear DNA preservation in historical DNA extracts.  Archaeometry doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2011.00606.x

Lister DL, Bower MA and Jones MK (2010) Herbarium specimens expand the geographical and temporal range of germplasm data in phylogeographic studies Taxon 59: 1321–1323

Lister DL, Thaw S, Bower MA, Charles M, Jones G, Jones H, Howe CJ, Brown TA and Jones MK (2009) Latitudinal variation in a photoperiod response gene in European barley: Insight into the spread of agriculture from historic specimens Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1092–1098

Jones, H, Lister DL, Bower MA, Leigh FJ, Smith, LM & Jones MK (2008). Approaches and constraints of using existing landrace and extant plant material to understand agricultural spread in prehistory. Plant Genetic Resources Characterisation and Utilisation 6: 98-112.

Lister DL, Bower MA, Howe CJ and Jones MK (2008) Extraction and amplification of nuclear DNA from herbarium specimens of emmer wheat: A method for assessing DNA preservation by maximum amplicon length recovery Taxon 57: 254–258

Lister DL, Bateman JM, Purton S and  Howe CJ (2003) DNA transfer from chloroplast to nucleus is much rarer in Chlamydomonas than in tobacco. Gene 316, 33-38.

Rathbone DA, Lister DL and Bruce NC (2002) Biotransformation of alkaloids. In
The Alkaloids. G.A.Cordell (ed.),  pp. 1-82. Academic Press, San Diego.

Lister DL, Kanungo G, Rathbone DA and Bruce NC (1999) Transformations of codeine to important semisynthetic opiate derivatives by Pseudomonas putida m10. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 181, 137-144.

Lister DL, Sproule RF, Britt AJ, Lowe CR, and Bruce NC (1996) Degradation of cocaine by a mixed microbial culture of Pseudomonas fluorescens MBER and Comamonas acidovorans  MBLF. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62, 94-99.

Udvardi MK, Lister DL and Day DA (1992)  Isolation and characterization of a ntrC mutant of Bradyrhizobium (Parasponia) sp. ANU289. J. Gen. Microbiol. 138, 1019-1025.

Udvardi MK, Lister DL and Day DA (1991) ATPase activity and anion transport across the peribacteroid membrane of isolated soybean symbiosomes. Arch. Microbiol.
156, 362-366.

Udvardi MK, Lister DL and Day DA (1990) Nitrogen regulation in Bradyrhizobium  (Parasponia) sp. ANU289. In Nitrogen fixation: achievements and objectives. Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Nitrogen Fixation, Knoxville, Tennessee, 20-26 May, 1990. Gresshoff, Roth, Stacey & Newton (eds.) Chapman & Hall, London.

Tsampa, a Tibetan staple, is made from roasted barley flour and is normally eaten with salty butter tea.

Tibetan women winnowing barley near Xiahe, Gansu province, China

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum) from the herbarium of the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, St Petersburg, Russia. Historic material such as this specimen is a useful source of genetic material for phylogeographic studies.

Growing barley landraces at NIAB, with collaborator Dr Huw Jones