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Exceptional ancient DNA preservation and fibre remains of a Sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in Chehrābād, Iran
Mummified remains have long attracted interest as a potential source of ancient DNA. However, mummification is a rare process that requires an anhydrous environment to rapidly dehydrate and preserve tissue before complete decomposition occurs. We present the whole-genome sequences (3.94 X) of an app...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8278039/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34256582 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0222 |
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author | Rossi, Conor Ruß-Popa, Gabriela Mattiangeli, Valeria McDaid, Fionnuala Hare, Andrew J. Davoudi, Hossein Laleh, Haeedeh Lorzadeh, Zahra Khazaeli, Roya Fathi, Homa Teasdale, Matthew D. A'ali, Abolfazl Stöllner, Thomas Mashkour, Marjan Daly, Kevin G. |
author_facet | Rossi, Conor Ruß-Popa, Gabriela Mattiangeli, Valeria McDaid, Fionnuala Hare, Andrew J. Davoudi, Hossein Laleh, Haeedeh Lorzadeh, Zahra Khazaeli, Roya Fathi, Homa Teasdale, Matthew D. A'ali, Abolfazl Stöllner, Thomas Mashkour, Marjan Daly, Kevin G. |
author_sort | Rossi, Conor |
collection | PubMed |
description | Mummified remains have long attracted interest as a potential source of ancient DNA. However, mummification is a rare process that requires an anhydrous environment to rapidly dehydrate and preserve tissue before complete decomposition occurs. We present the whole-genome sequences (3.94 X) of an approximately 1600-year-old naturally mummified sheep recovered from Chehrābād, a salt mine in northwestern Iran. Comparative analyses of published ancient sequences revealed the remarkable DNA integrity of this mummy. Hallmarks of postmortem damage, fragmentation and hydrolytic deamination are substantially reduced, likely owing to the high salinity of this taphonomic environment. Metagenomic analyses reflect the profound influence of high-salt content on decomposition; its microbial profile is predominated by halophilic archaea and bacteria, possibly contributing to the remarkable preservation of the sample. Applying population genomic analyses, we find clustering of this sheep with Southwest Asian modern breeds, suggesting ancestry continuity. Genotyping of a locus influencing the woolly phenotype showed the presence of an ancestral ‘hairy’ allele, consistent with hair fibre imaging. This, along with derived alleles associated with the fat-tail phenotype, provides genetic evidence that Sasanian-period Iranians maintained specialized sheep flocks for different uses, with the ‘hairy’, ‘fat-tailed’-genotyped sheep likely kept by the rural community of Chehrābād's miners. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8278039 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-82780392021-07-21 Exceptional ancient DNA preservation and fibre remains of a Sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in Chehrābād, Iran Rossi, Conor Ruß-Popa, Gabriela Mattiangeli, Valeria McDaid, Fionnuala Hare, Andrew J. Davoudi, Hossein Laleh, Haeedeh Lorzadeh, Zahra Khazaeli, Roya Fathi, Homa Teasdale, Matthew D. A'ali, Abolfazl Stöllner, Thomas Mashkour, Marjan Daly, Kevin G. Biol Lett Population Genetics Mummified remains have long attracted interest as a potential source of ancient DNA. However, mummification is a rare process that requires an anhydrous environment to rapidly dehydrate and preserve tissue before complete decomposition occurs. We present the whole-genome sequences (3.94 X) of an approximately 1600-year-old naturally mummified sheep recovered from Chehrābād, a salt mine in northwestern Iran. Comparative analyses of published ancient sequences revealed the remarkable DNA integrity of this mummy. Hallmarks of postmortem damage, fragmentation and hydrolytic deamination are substantially reduced, likely owing to the high salinity of this taphonomic environment. Metagenomic analyses reflect the profound influence of high-salt content on decomposition; its microbial profile is predominated by halophilic archaea and bacteria, possibly contributing to the remarkable preservation of the sample. Applying population genomic analyses, we find clustering of this sheep with Southwest Asian modern breeds, suggesting ancestry continuity. Genotyping of a locus influencing the woolly phenotype showed the presence of an ancestral ‘hairy’ allele, consistent with hair fibre imaging. This, along with derived alleles associated with the fat-tail phenotype, provides genetic evidence that Sasanian-period Iranians maintained specialized sheep flocks for different uses, with the ‘hairy’, ‘fat-tailed’-genotyped sheep likely kept by the rural community of Chehrābād's miners. The Royal Society 2021-07-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8278039/ /pubmed/34256582 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0222 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Population Genetics Rossi, Conor Ruß-Popa, Gabriela Mattiangeli, Valeria McDaid, Fionnuala Hare, Andrew J. Davoudi, Hossein Laleh, Haeedeh Lorzadeh, Zahra Khazaeli, Roya Fathi, Homa Teasdale, Matthew D. A'ali, Abolfazl Stöllner, Thomas Mashkour, Marjan Daly, Kevin G. Exceptional ancient DNA preservation and fibre remains of a Sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in Chehrābād, Iran |
title | Exceptional ancient DNA preservation and fibre remains of a Sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in Chehrābād, Iran |
title_full | Exceptional ancient DNA preservation and fibre remains of a Sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in Chehrābād, Iran |
title_fullStr | Exceptional ancient DNA preservation and fibre remains of a Sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in Chehrābād, Iran |
title_full_unstemmed | Exceptional ancient DNA preservation and fibre remains of a Sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in Chehrābād, Iran |
title_short | Exceptional ancient DNA preservation and fibre remains of a Sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in Chehrābād, Iran |
title_sort | exceptional ancient dna preservation and fibre remains of a sasanian saltmine sheep mummy in chehrābād, iran |
topic | Population Genetics |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8278039/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34256582 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0222 |
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