%0 Journal Article
%A Guinet, Benjamin
%A Oskolkov, Nikolay
%A Moreland, Kelsey
%A Dehasque, Marianne
%A Chacón Duque, J. Camilo
%A Angerbjörn, Anders
%A Arsuaga Ferreras, Juan Luis
%A Danilov, Gleb
%A Kanellidou,  Foteini
%A Kitchener,  Andrew C.
%T Ancient host-associated microbes obtained from mammoth remains
%D 2025
%@ 0092-8674
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126307
%X Ancient genomic studies have extensively explored human-microbial interactions, yet research on non-human animals remains limited. In this study, we analyzed ancient microbial DNA from 483 mammoth remains spanning over 1 million years, including 440 newly sequenced and unpublished samples from a 1.1-million-year-old steppe mammoth. Using metagenomic screening, contaminant filtering, damage pattern analysis, and phylogenetic inference, we identified 310 microbes associated with different mammoth tissues. While most microbes were environmental or post-mortem colonizers, we recovered genomic evidence of six host-associated microbial clades spanning Actinobacillus, Pasteurella, Streptococcus, and Erysipelothrix. Some of these clades contained putative virulence factors, including a Pasteurella-related bacterium that had previously been linked to the deaths of African elephants. Notably, we reconstructed partial genomes of Erysipelothrix from the oldest mammoth sample, representing the oldest authenticated host-associated microbial DNA to date. This work demonstrates the potential of obtaining ancient animal microbiomes, which can inform further paleoecological and evolutionary research.
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