Kaspar Hauser’s alleged noble origin – New molecular genetic analyses resolve the controversy

Autor: Walther Parson, Christina Amory, Turi King, Michaela Preick, Cordula Berger, Anna König, Gabriela Huber, Katja Anslinger, Birgit Bayer, Gottfried Weichhold, Timo Sänger, Sabine Lutz-Bonengel, Heidi Pfeiffer, Michael Hofreiter, Dietmar Pfründer, Carsten Hohoff, Bernd Brinkmann
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: iScience, Vol 27, Iss 9, Pp 110539- (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2589-0042
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110539
Popis: Summary: Kaspar Hauser’s parentage has been the subject of research and debate for nearly 200 years. As for his possible aristocratic descent through the House of Baden, there is suspicion that he was swapped as a baby, kidnapped, and kept in isolation to bring a collateral lineage to the throne. In the last 28 years, various genetic analyses have been carried out to investigate this possible aristocratic origin. Previous results using less sensitive Sanger and electrophoresis-based methods were contradictory, and moreover, the authenticity of some samples was disputed, thus leaving the question open. Our analyses using modern capture- and whole genome-based massively parallel sequencing techniques reveal that the mitochondrial DNA haplotypes in different samples attributed to Kaspar Hauser were identical, demonstrating authenticity for the first time, and clearly different from the mitochondrial lineage of the House of Baden, which rules out a maternal relationship and thus the widely believed “Prince theory”.
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