Oskolkov Nikolay, Sandionigi Anna, Götherström Anders, Canini Fabiana, Turchetti Benedetta, Zucconi Laura, Mimmo Tanja, Buzzini Pietro, Borruso Luigimaria
Department of Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Department of Informatics, Systems and Communication, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
BMC Genomics. 2024 Dec 19;25(1):1225. doi: 10.1186/s12864-024-11123-2.
Fungal DNA is rarely reported in metagenomic studies of ancient samples. Although fungi are essential for their interactions with all kingdoms of life, limited information is available about ancient fungi. Here, we explore the possibility of the presence of ancient fungal species in the gut of Ötzi, the Iceman, a naturally mummified human found in the Tyrolean Alps (border between Italy and Austria).
A robust bioinformatic pipeline has been developed to detect and authenticate fungal ancient DNA (aDNA) from muscle, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine samples.
We revealed the presence of ancient DNA associated with Pseudogymnoascus genus, with P. destructans and P. verrucosus as possible species, which were abundant in the stomach and small intestine and absent in the large intestine and muscle samples.
We suggest that Ötzi may have consumed these fungi accidentally, likely in association with other elements of his diet, and they persisted in his gut after his death due to their adaptability to harsh and cold environments. This suggests the potential co-occurrence of ancient humans with opportunistic fungal species and proposes and validates a conservative bioinformatic approach for detecting and authenticating fungal aDNA in historical metagenomic samples.
在古代样本的宏基因组研究中，真菌DNA鲜有报道。尽管真菌对于其与所有生物界的相互作用至关重要，但关于古代真菌的信息有限。在此，我们探讨了在奥茨（即冰人）肠道中存在古代真菌物种的可能性，奥茨是在蒂罗尔阿尔卑斯山（意大利和奥地利边境）发现的一具自然木乃伊化的人类遗体。
已开发出一套强大的生物信息学流程，用于从肌肉、胃、小肠和大肠样本中检测和鉴定真菌古代DNA（aDNA）。
我们发现了与假裸囊菌属相关的古代DNA，可能的物种为毁灭假裸囊菌和疣状假裸囊菌，它们在胃和小肠中含量丰富，而在大肠和肌肉样本中不存在。
我们认为奥茨可能意外摄入了这些真菌，可能与他饮食中的其他成分有关，并且由于它们对恶劣寒冷环境的适应性，在他死后仍存在于其肠道中。这表明古代人类可能与机会性真菌物种同时存在，并提出并验证了一种保守的生物信息学方法，用于在历史宏基因组样本中检测和鉴定真菌aDNA。
