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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...

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Autores principales: 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.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
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.
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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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