Overview on existing molecular techniques with potential interest in cultural heritage

Abstract

In the last years, Molecular Biology is developing at a really fast pace. Many of these molecular technique can be readily applied to the study of cultural assets. This study presents an overview of the available techniques. Some of these methodologies have already been applied to cultural heritage (e. g., PCR, cloning, community profiling, sequencing), some others have never been used for this purpose (i. e., genomics and other recent developments). so far, molecular techniques have proved to be extremely usefull for understanding microbial communities and their potential consequences. The objective of this article is to present most of what is available and some potential applications that theses novel techniques could bring into the research, conservation, and study of cultural heritage.