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Scientists have revived a natural molecule that existed 100,000 years ago by piecing together the DNA of prehistoric microbes, according to a new study, a major breakthrough.
The researchers taught living microbes to interpret genetic information from their ancient relatives, and they last existed during the Pleistocene epoch, when mammoths, saber-toothed tigers and Neanderthals still roamed our planet. We have made it possible to synthesize a compound called Paleofuran.
The first discovery of its kind offers an entirely new look at the past and could lead to the development of new biomedical products such as antibiotics. It may come from organisms that are extinct or unknown to modern science.
A multidisciplinary team of scientists, co-led by Pierre Stallforth, bioorganic chemist at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and head of paleontological engineering at Leibniz HKI, has identified ancient humans and our near We meticulously pieced together the genetic fragments of the microbes that lived in plaque. A close relative of Neanderthals, who went extinct 40,000 years ago.
The results “not only pave the way for the discovery of ancient natural products and provide evolutionary insight into their formation and origin, but also inform potential future uses.” A study published Thursday of chemistry.
“We knew it would be really cool if we could extract information from ancient DNA and see if we could turn it into a tangible, natural product,” Stallforth told Motherboard by phone. . “We knew it would be very difficult, but if we could do that, it would be a huge step forward in how he could go back in time and revive an ancient function that existed 100,000 years ago.”
Scientists have sequenced DNA from animals and ecosystems. well over a million years old However, retrieving genetic material from ancient microbes poses unique challenges. Prehistoric microbes have left behind hundreds of species and genetic oddities all mixed together, making it difficult to untangle all the pieces and reconstruct them in a clear order.
“When you look at ancient DNA, the genetic information of the past, it’s often very fragmented,” explains Stallforth. The older you get, the harder it gets. For example, the samples we work with are not single bacteria, but vast numbers of different bacteria. ”
“It’s like a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle trying to solve it, as you try to piece it together and figure out which parts belong to which organism,” he added.
Despite these head-turning obstacles, the team is inspired to continue trying to decipher ancient genetic information using advances in computational biotechnology and genome reconstruction.
The researchers extracted microbial DNA from the teeth of 12 Neanderthals who lived between 40,000 and 102,000 years ago, and 34 humans who lived between 150 and 30,000 years ago. They also sequenced microbial DNA found in the dental plaque of 18 modern humans, helping to uncover missing links in the genetic code of their ancient counterparts.
With this approach, Stallforth and his colleagues successfully reconstructed ancient microbial genomes. Chlorobium It was especially well preserved in the teeth of a woman who lived in Spain 19,000 years ago. Known as the Red Lady of El Miron.
Researchers were then able to introduce the prehistoric DNA into living microorganisms and produce the same natural molecules and products as the ancient DNA. Scientists have used modern microbes to synthesize all sorts of useful products, but a new study pushes the timeline for this technology back tens of thousands of years, stating that “the discovery of natural products has a time dimension. Effectively added “Study.
“We may find useful compounds,” says Stallforth. “More than 70% of all antibiotics in commercial use are natural products produced by microorganisms and are derived from those compounds.”
“It would be great to see if we have access to new sources of structurally diverse compounds that can be used for biomedical applications,” he continued. “It would be a dream come true if we could show that they are actually useful for a particular application.”
More research is needed to explore these potential applications, but new research could help shed light on many outstanding questions. can be used to investigate microbial diversity over time and assess relationships with hosts, including humans.
Future work “may tell us stories [whether] Humans may have suffered from certain diseases, or bacteria may have created something beneficial to humans and other bacteria. will be.”
“I think it’s a window into the past from another angle,” he concludes. “Archaeology is trying to reconstruct something based on ancient sites, and I think we’re just adding a new layer to it here.”