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Ancient bacteria show evidence of DNA repair
Open accessAbstract
Recent claims of cultivable ancient bacteria within sealed environments highlight our limited understanding of the mechanisms behind long-term cell survival. It remains unclear how dormancy, a favored explanation for extended cellular persistence, can cope with spontaneous genomic decay over geological timescales. There has been no direct evidence in ancient microbes for the most likely mechanism, active DNA repair, or for the metabolic activity necessary to sustain it. In this paper, we couple PCR and enzymatic treatment of DNA with direct respiration measurements to investigate long-term survival of bacteria sealed in frozen conditions for up to one million years. Our results show evidence of bacterial survival in samples up to half a million years in age, making this the oldest independently authenticated DNA to date obtained from viable cells. Additionally, we find strong evidence that this long-term survival is closely tied to cellular metabolic activity and DNA repair that over time proves to be superior to dormancy as a mechanism in sustaining bacteria viability.
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“however research into the mechanisms bacteria use for self preservation during periods of sub-optimal environmental conditions has provided supporting evidence for the long term preservation [26] and stability of DNA in bacterial pathogens.”
From Molecular Exploration of the First-Century Tomb of the Shroud in Akeldama, Jerusalem (2009) · cites this paper as [26]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Johnson, S. S., Hebsgaard, M. B., Christensen, T. R., Mastepanov, M., Nielsen, R., Munch, K., Brand, T., Gilbert, M. T. P., Zuber, M. T., Bunce, M., Rønn, R., Gilichinsky, D., Froese, D., & Willerslev, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Lund University (SE)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Murdoch University (AU)
- Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
- University of Alberta (CA)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2007-09-04
- Volume
- 104
- Issue
- 36
- Pages
- 14401-14405
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC1958816
- OpenAlex
- W2147486201
- Cited by
- 292
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 14.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Murdoch University Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Polar Research and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Keywords
- ancient bacteria, DNA repair, bacterial dormancy, metabolic activity
- MeSH terms
- Bacteria, Base Sequence, DNA Repair, DNA, Bacterial, Gene Amplification, Molecular Sequence Data, Soil Microbiology
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