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Ancient host-associated microbes obtained from mammoth remains
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology. Centre for Palaeogenetics, Sweden; Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4640-8306
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Number of Authors: 282025 (English)In: Cell, ISSN 0092-8674, E-ISSN 1097-4172Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Ancient genomic studies have extensively explored human-microbial interactions, yet research on non-human animals remains limited. In this study, we analyzed ancient microbial DNA from 483 mammoth remains spanning over 1 million years, including 440 newly sequenced and unpublished samples from a 1.1-million-year-old steppe mammoth. Using metagenomic screening, contaminant filtering, damage pattern analysis, and phylogenetic inference, we identified 310 microbes associated with different mammoth tissues. While most microbes were environmental or post-mortem colonizers, we recovered genomic evidence of six host-associated microbial clades spanning ActinobacillusPasteurellaStreptococcus, and Erysipelothrix. Some of these clades contained putative virulence factors, including a Pasteurella-related bacterium that had previously been linked to the deaths of African elephants. Notably, we reconstructed partial genomes of Erysipelothrix from the oldest mammoth sample, representing the oldest authenticated host-associated microbial DNA to date. This work demonstrates the potential of obtaining ancient animal microbiomes, which can inform further paleoecological and evolutionary research.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025.
Keywords [en]
aDNA, mammoths, metagenomics, microbes, paleogenetics
National Category
Genetics and Genomics Palaeontology and Palaeoecology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-247995DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.08.003PubMedID: 40902595Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105017056807OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-247995DiVA, id: diva2:2005050
Available from: 2025-10-09 Created: 2025-10-09 Last updated: 2025-10-09

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Dehasque, MarianneChacón-Duque, J. CamiloAngerbjörn, AndersDíez-del-Molino, DavidGötherström, AndersPečnerová, PatríciaDalén, Love

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Dehasque, MarianneChacón-Duque, J. CamiloAngerbjörn, AndersDíez-del-Molino, DavidGötherström, AndersPečnerová, PatríciaDalén, Love
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Department of ZoologyDepartment of Archaeology and Classical Studies
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Genetics and GenomicsPalaeontology and Palaeoecology

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