Ancient bacteria show evidence of DNA repair
Författare
Summary, in English
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.
Publiceringsår
2007
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
14401-14405
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volym
104
Issue
36
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
National Academy of Sciences
Ämne
- Physical Geography
Nyckelord
- DNA damage
- long-term microbial survival
- metabolic activity
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1091-6490