Guinet, BenjaminOskolkov, NikolayMoreland, KelseyDehasque, MarianneChacón Duque, J. CamiloAngerbjörn, AndersArsuaga Ferreras, Juan LuisDanilov, GlebKanellidou, FoteiniKitchener, Andrew C.2025-11-202025-11-202025-11-13Guinet, B., Oskolkov, N., Moreland, K., Dehasque, M., Chacón-Duque, J. C., Angerbjörn, A., Arsuaga, J. L., Danilov, G., Kanellidou, F., Kitchener, A. C., Muller, H., Plotnikov, V., Protopopov, A., Tikhonov, A., Termes, L., Zazula, G., Mortensen, P., Grigorieva, L., Richards, M., … Van Der Valk, T. (2025). Ancient host-associated microbes obtained from mammoth remains. Cell, 188(23), 6606-6619.e24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.08.0030092-867410.1016/j.cell.2025.08.003https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126307Ancient 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ancient microbial DNA from 483 mammoth remains spanning over 1 million years, including 440 newly sequenced and unpublished samples from a 1.1-million-year-old steppe mammoth.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.engjournal article1097-4172https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.08.003https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00917-1open access575.17:569.61PaleogeneticsMetagenomicsMicrobesMammothsaDNAPaleontologíaGenética2416.05 Paleontología de Los Vertebrados2409 Genética