BOLZANO, ITALY, June 23 (DC Times Online) — A peer-reviewed study has identified four cold-adapted yeast species on Ötzi the Iceman’s remains, adding to evidence that the 5,300-year-old mummy still contains a mix of ancient microbes and modern contaminants under museum conditions, Eurac Research researchers said.
The work was published in the journal Microbiome. Researchers said they traced yeast DNA in samples taken from the mummy’s skin, meltwater inside the body and stomach contents, and reconstructed the microbes’ genetics from those samples.
The team described Ötzi’s remains as a dynamic biological interface, where glacier-derived microbes and later contaminants can coexist. The study also reported degraded and modern DNA fragments in the material it analyzed.
In reporting on the study, ScienceAlert quoted lead author Mohamed Sarhan of Eurac Research as saying a mummy’s microbiome is unusual because it can contain microbes that are more than 5,000 years old alongside organisms introduced after discovery. The researchers said some of the microbes may have been introduced during recovery and preservation, while other evidence fits the idea that the body thawed and refroze several times over thousands of years.
The study also said the team cultured multiple microbe species and recovered four viable strains, three of which could use phenol, a compound used to suppress fungal growth, as a food source.
Ötzi was found in 1991 in the Alps near the Austria-Italy border and is housed in a cold cell at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. The museum says radiocarbon dating places him around 3300 BC, making him Europe’s oldest known natural human mummy.
