Department of Archaeology, Cultural Heritage and Museology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, China.
The Traditional Architecture Design and Research Institute of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310030, China.
Microb Ecol. 2023 Oct;86(3):2109-2119. doi: 10.1007/s00248-023-02221-x. Epub 2023 Apr 26.
Archaeological wood, also known as wooden cultural relics, refers to ancient wood that has been worked by humans. Further insights into the decomposition mechanism of archaeological wood are needed for its preventive conservation. In this study, we assessed the microbiome diversity and cellulose decomposition processes on a 200-year-old ancient wooden seawall - the Qiantang River of Hangzhou, China. We used high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to deduce the metagenomic functions, particularly the cellulose-decomposing pathway of the microbial communities, through bioinformatical approaches. The predominant cellulose-decomposing microorganisms were then verified with traditional isolation, culture, and identification method. The results showed that the excavation of archaeological wood significantly altered the environment, accelerating the deterioration process of the archaeological wood through the carbohydrate metabolism and the xenobiotic biodegradation and metabolism pathways, under the comprehensive metabolism of complex ecosystem formed by bacteria, archaea, fungi, microfauna, plants, and algae. Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria were found to be the predominant source of bacterial cellulose-decomposing enzymes. Accordingly, we suggest relocating the wooden seawall to an indoor environment with controllable conditions to better preserve it. In addition, these results provide further evidence for our viewpoints that HTS techniques, combined with rational bioinformatical data interpretation approaches, can serve as powerful tools for the preventive protection of cultural heritage.
考古木材，也称为木质文物，是指经过人类加工的古代木材。为了对考古木材进行预防性保护，需要进一步深入了解其分解机制。在这项研究中，我们评估了 200 年前中国杭州钱塘江古木海堤的微生物群落多样性和纤维素分解过程。我们使用高通量测序（HTS）技术，并通过生物信息学方法推断微生物群落的宏基因组功能，特别是纤维素分解途径。然后，采用传统的分离、培养和鉴定方法对主要的纤维素分解微生物进行了验证。结果表明，考古木材的挖掘显著改变了环境，通过碳水化合物代谢、外来生物生物降解和代谢途径，在细菌、古菌、真菌、微型动物、植物和藻类等复杂生态系统的综合代谢作用下，加速了考古木材的恶化过程。拟杆菌门、变形菌门、厚壁菌门和放线菌门被发现是细菌纤维素分解酶的主要来源。因此，我们建议将木海堤搬迁到具有可控条件的室内环境中，以更好地保存它。此外，这些结果进一步证明了我们的观点，即 HTS 技术结合合理的生物信息学数据分析方法，可以作为文化遗产预防性保护的有力工具。
