Paleomicrobiology: Tracking the past microbial life from single species to entire microbial communities.

ABSTRACT: By deciphering information encoded in degraded ancient DNA extracted from up to million-years-old samples, molecular paleomicrobiology enables to objectively retrace the temporal evolution of microbial species and communities. Assembly of full-length genomes of ancient pathogen lineages allows not only to follow historical epidemics in space and time but also to identify the acquisition of genetic features that represent landmarks in the evolution of the host-microbe interaction. Analysis of microbial community DNA extracted from essentially human paleo-artefacts (paleofeces, dental calculi) evaluates the relative contribution of diet, lifestyle and geography on the taxonomic and functional diversity of these guilds in which have been identified species that may have gone extinct in today'

SUBMITTER: Grasso G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10832523 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature