The race to find Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA takes a major turn

The race to find Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA takes a major turn

By Jackie Flynn Mogensen Edited by Claire Cameron

Scientists searching for the DNA of famed Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci say they have made a breakthrough – but some experts caution against interpreting the results as a smoking gun.

As first reported By Science On Tuesday, J. in Rockville, MD. Researchers at the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project based at the Craig Venter Institute reported that they have detected male DNA in the samples taken. holy childA chalk drawing attributed by some to Leonardo, along with other artworks. The findings are detailed An initial paper posted on the preprint server bioRxivAnd they have yet to be peer-reviewed.

Leonardo’s genome remains an elusive target. His remains could not be verified were troubled during the French RevolutionThe remains of many of his direct relatives are still being examined, and he had no known children, All this makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to identify his DNA, says David Carmelli, an anthropologist and ancient DNA expert at the University of Florence in Italy, who is a member of the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project but was not involved in the new study,

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To try to overcome these limitations, Norberto Gonzalez-Juarbe, assistant professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at the University of Maryland, and his colleagues on the project analyzed multiple samples taken from different artifacts. They found traces of plants and other environmental signatures that lined up with times and places in the polymath’s life, as well as male DNA of Tuscan descent that, they could speculate, could point to Leonardo himself.

Manuel Porcar Miralles, an applied microbiologist at the University of Valencia in Spain, who was not involved in the work, says it is “brilliant” and appears to be “technically robust.”

The effort is somewhat equivalent to solving a modern serial killer mystery by looking for the same DNA in different crime scenes, says John Hawkes, an anthropologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the study.

He says, “If you can find similar DNA patterns in paintings, drawings or even locations associated with Leonardo, you will have some confidence that you are looking at his genome – even without being able to find genealogical relatives today.”

Yet, the reality is more complex: Leonardo’s artwork is covered with the DNA of an unknown number of people – from contemporaries of the man himself to art handlers working in museums today – which presents an obvious challenge for researchers.

“I think the work hasn’t gotten there yet,” Hawkes says.

Porcar Miralles, who is also CTO of Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence, a microbiology start-up, agrees: Detecting male DNA in Tuscany does not guarantee that it was Leonardo’s. It’s entirely possible that the DNA belongs to any one of “dozens or even hundreds of people in the area who may have touched the artwork once it was completed,” including after the painter passed away, he says.

For the Hawks, that might not be such a bad thing. The information obtained in the analysis still helps to paint a picture of Leonardo’s environment and his community.

“What’s compelling is that DNA can be detected in every artifact and object from history, which adds up to a picture of the networks of people associated with these objects,” Hawkes says.

The study authors attempted to uncover some of those stories: Traces of citrus found in some samples could be linked to the plantations of the powerful Medici family, which ran Florence for hundreds of years and employed Leonardo.

But although it’s a compelling story, the researchers failed to authenticate the age of the DNA, which is a significant limitation of the study, Carmeli says.

Indeed, Gonzalez-Juarbe admits that the researchers were limited by the small size and fragmented nature of their dataset, as well as how little DNA they were able to extract from each sample. Still, he says, the methods described in the paper can serve as a baseline for future research.

Porcar Miralles says the results could be “even stronger” if researchers can find confirmed remains of Leonardo or if they can collect DNA from one of his living relatives that matches the samples they found.

“I hope that we are able to test many cultural artifacts from the (Leonardo da Vinci) lineage and connect our findings with living descendants,” Gonzalez-Juarbe says.

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