DNA of bacteria from a mammoth tooth

It has been reported that scientists have discovered the oldest known traces of microbes ever associated with an animal.

This was achieved through the study of a 1.1 million-year-old mammoth tooth. The results of the study were published in the journal Cell.

Such studies provide an opportunity to understand not only the mammoths themselves, but also the microbes that lived with them.

The analysis included 483 samples of mammoth remains — teeth, skulls, molars, and skin. Of these, 440 samples were examined for the first time.

Scientists were able to isolate the microbes that lived inside the mammoths during their lifetime and distinguish them from foreign bacteria that entered after death.

Six groups of bacteria were found to be constant companions of mammoths, including ancient analogues of Actinobacillus, Pasteurella, Streptococcus, and Erysipelothrix.

Some microbes could have affected the animals’ health: for example, Pasteurella carried genes associated with dangerous infections in modern African elephants.

Partial genomes from a 1.1-million-year-old mammoth became the oldest microbial DNA found associated with its host.