First fossil chromosomes discovered in freeze-dried mammoth skin

The 3D arrangement of the DNA in the animal’s cells hints at which genes were active.

BY Giorgia Guglielmi

On the frozen tundra of Siberia some 50,000 years ago, a woolly mammoth met its end under mysterious circumstances. In samples of the animal’s skin, researchers have now discovered chromosomes preserved in their original 3D configuration¹ — a feat previously thought impossible in ancient-DNA research.

The team also revealed the spatial organization of the mammoth’s DNA molecules and the active genes in its skin, including one responsible for giving the animal its fuzzy appearance. The work was published today in Cell.

The study is the first to report the 3D structure of an ancient genome, says Ludovic Orlando, a molecular archaeologist at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France, who didn’t take part in the research. Because the spatial structure of a genome — the complete set of an organism’s genetic material — holds clues to its gene activity, understanding that structure might offer deeper insights into the cell biology of the mammoth’s skin than examining the DNA sequence alone, he says. “This work is simply unprecedented.”

To Learn More Click Here

For General Inquiries

For Press Inquiries