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Molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment

Biomolecules preserved in fossils are expanding our understanding of the biology and evolution of ancient animals. Molecular taphonomy seeks to understand how these biomolecules are preserved and how they can be interpreted. So far, few studies on molecular preservation have considered burial contex...

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Autores principales: Colleary, Caitlin, Lamadrid, Hector M., O’Reilly, Shane S., Dolocan, Andrei, Nesbitt, Sterling J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7846728/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33514821
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81849-6
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author Colleary, Caitlin
Lamadrid, Hector M.
O’Reilly, Shane S.
Dolocan, Andrei
Nesbitt, Sterling J.
author_facet Colleary, Caitlin
Lamadrid, Hector M.
O’Reilly, Shane S.
Dolocan, Andrei
Nesbitt, Sterling J.
author_sort Colleary, Caitlin
collection PubMed
description Biomolecules preserved in fossils are expanding our understanding of the biology and evolution of ancient animals. Molecular taphonomy seeks to understand how these biomolecules are preserved and how they can be interpreted. So far, few studies on molecular preservation have considered burial context to understand its impact on preservation or the potentially complementary information from multiple biomolecular classes. Here, we use mass spectrometry and other analytical techniques to detect the remains of proteins and lipids within intact fossil mammoth bones of different ages and varied depositional setting. By combining these approaches, we demonstrate that endogenous amino acids, amides and lipids can preserve well in fossil bone. Additionally, these techniques enable us to examine variation in preservation based on location within the bone, finding dense cortical bone better preserves biomolecules, both by slowing the rate of degradation and limiting the extent of exogenous contamination. Our dataset demonstrates that biomolecule loss begins early, is impacted by burial environment and temperature, and that both exogenous and endogenous molecular signals can be both present and informative in a single fossil.
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spelling pubmed-78467282021-02-01 Molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment Colleary, Caitlin Lamadrid, Hector M. O’Reilly, Shane S. Dolocan, Andrei Nesbitt, Sterling J. Sci Rep Article Biomolecules preserved in fossils are expanding our understanding of the biology and evolution of ancient animals. Molecular taphonomy seeks to understand how these biomolecules are preserved and how they can be interpreted. So far, few studies on molecular preservation have considered burial context to understand its impact on preservation or the potentially complementary information from multiple biomolecular classes. Here, we use mass spectrometry and other analytical techniques to detect the remains of proteins and lipids within intact fossil mammoth bones of different ages and varied depositional setting. By combining these approaches, we demonstrate that endogenous amino acids, amides and lipids can preserve well in fossil bone. Additionally, these techniques enable us to examine variation in preservation based on location within the bone, finding dense cortical bone better preserves biomolecules, both by slowing the rate of degradation and limiting the extent of exogenous contamination. Our dataset demonstrates that biomolecule loss begins early, is impacted by burial environment and temperature, and that both exogenous and endogenous molecular signals can be both present and informative in a single fossil. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-01-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7846728/ /pubmed/33514821 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81849-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Colleary, Caitlin
Lamadrid, Hector M.
O’Reilly, Shane S.
Dolocan, Andrei
Nesbitt, Sterling J.
Molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment
title Molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment
title_full Molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment
title_fullStr Molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment
title_full_unstemmed Molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment
title_short Molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment
title_sort molecular preservation in mammoth bone and variation based on burial environment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7846728/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33514821
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81849-6
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