We invoke here the analogy of the (genomic) kaleidoscope.
(5/n)

(Cool drawing by Dr. Binia De Cahsan, @biobee.illustrations in IG 📸)

So, it all started after we organised a symposium at the @official-smbe.bsky.social meeting in 2024, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 🇲🇽.
Together with all the speakers (all in the picture), we joined forces to write this Perspective for GBE, summarising the key ideas and results presented there.
(3/n)

With @hologenomics.bsky.social, we sampled each step of the process to see how microbial communities evolve.

Spoiler alert: Even in a stable, well-behaved system, we found some surprises... 👀 (3/7)

DNA damage would mean that the bacteria were not largely active, while presence + non/low damage would mean that the bacteria were alive. There were some differences in what’s active and what not… specially, Streptomyces was active in the 2021 freshly excavated bones. (12/n)

We compared the metabolic potential of the communities reconstructed from 2021 excavated bones and the ones stored in the museum. We found that the 2021 is rich in a specific set of enzymes known to degrade bone matrix.
(See Borchert et al., 2021, mSystems) (10/n)

We found that in-situ stored bones hosted a particular microbiome. It was specially rich in Streptomyces genus, previously reported to be associated with bone matrix degradation, due to their M9 collagenase enzymes, among others. (9/n)

Besides factors like temperature, humidity and aerobic exposure, DNA can also be damage by bone degrading bacteria, which can grow in the bone, digging some foci, and damaging the material. (8/n)

Our first finding was that endogenous DNA content, length and concentration preserve better in freshly excavated bones. DNA 5’ deamination was higher in 2021, but we hypothesize that higher DNA bond cleavage in the museum exposes new, undamaged molecules, hence reducing the deamination %. (7/n)

In 2021, 43 years later, the same team returned to the same location and collected new bone samples from the identical layers as in 1978. 😳

We extracted DNA and sequenced these bone samples to investigate post-excavation changes in endogenous DNA degradation in bone material. (5/n)

During these traditional journeys, they retraced the same ancient pathways and camped on the same grounds as their ancestors. Caribou carcasses accumulated in layers over time. In 1978, archaeologists collected bones from a trench in Aasivissuit and transferred them to the National Museum of 🇩🇰 (4/n)

For approximately 4,400 years, until the late 1950s, Native Greenlandic Inuit populations from the Aasivissuit ("summer camp") area in West Greenland maintained an annual tradition of traveling inland to hunt caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and fish for Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). (3/n)

New paper out! 📄
My first adventures in (ancient) metagenomics. 🦠

“Exploring DNA degradation in situ and in museum storage through genomics and metagenomics” www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Curious about the water color painting (see ALT text)? 🦌

Thread (Bluetorial?) with findings!
🧶👇 (1/n)

This represents a very special work for us, for the process was also very singular.

So, we (w/ Diego & Marina) organized a symposium, under the same name as our manuscript, for the last @official-smbe.bsky.social meeting '2024 (pic) in México 🇲🇽.
👇

Hey Science Rockers in Barcelona! 🤘🏽

Come join us next Friday 20th Dec. where I will be sharing some science notes 🎶 with this terrific, mastodontic, band #TheMothercrow

Do you know what psychedelic- stoner- rock tunes have to do with mammoths and 3D DNA folding...?
🌈🧬🦣

#MSCActions #POPARCH

Éche cultural.
En Cedeira apañaron unha tamén hai 100 anos e fundirona cos bloques do peirao, deixando a amarra e o ollo cara fóra, para amarrar as chalanas.

www.lavozdegalicia.es/amp/noticia/...

👀 Look at the painting in the middle upper-left part of the above image. This one:

It depicts danish king Christian I inaugurating the University of Copenhagen on June 1st, 1479. He has long been acknowledged as the founder of UoC. (3/7)

Today, Globe Institute employees attended an interesting panel debate to discuss "Research Excellence", defining new parameters to assess it. The discussion explored how factors such as diversity, collaboration, curiosity, and gender balance could be evaluated (1/7).

🧵 follows!