The Lady from Basel's Barfüsserkirche - Molecular confirmation of the Mummy's identity through mitochondrial DNA of living relatives spanning 22 generations

Abstract

The identity of the mummified Lady from the Barfüsser Church in Basel, Switzerland has been unsolved for decades, despite the prominent location of the burial place in front of the choir screen. A recent multidisciplinary research approach came up with a possible candidate, Anna Catharina Bischoff who died in Basel in 1787 with an age of 69 years (1719-1787). To verify the identity of the mummy, genealogists of the Citizen Science Basel discovered three living individuals of the maternal lineage of two different family branches, separated from Anna Catharina Bischoff by up to 22 generations. In this study we compare the ancient mitochondrial DNA of the mummy recovered from a premolar to the mitochondrial DNA of these three candidates. Initially the mitochondrial hypervariable regions I and II of the living individuals were screened using the Sanger sequencing method. This was followed by a mitochondrial capture approach and next generation sequencing to enrich for the whole mitochondrial genome of the mummy and one living person. A full mitochondrial genome has been recovered of both individuals sharing an identical haplotype. The sequence was assigned to the mitochondrial haplogroup U5a1+!16192 including two private mutations 10006G and 16293C. Only by using an interdisciplinary approach combining ancient DNA analysis and genealogy a maternal lineage of a non-noble family spanning 22 generations could be confirmed.

Keywords: Ancient DNA; Genealogy; Identity reconstruction; MtDNA capture; Mummy.