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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

BOLZANO, ITALY—A bone sample taken from the

natural mummy known as Ötzi, found in a melting
glacier on the Austrian-Italian border by hikers 1991,
was used to decode his genome. Now a team of
(http://www.archaeological.org)
experts from the European Academy of Bolzano
(EURAC) and the University of Vienna analyzed the
non-human DNA in the sample and identified traces
of Treponema denticola, a pathogen involved in the
development of periodontal disease. And, in fact, the
Iceman was diagnosed with periodontitis with a
computer tomography scan last year. “What is new
(PLOS ONE)
is that we did not carry out a directed DNA analysis
but rather investigated the whole spectrum of DNA to better understand which organisms are in this
sample,” Frank Maixner of the EURAC Institute for Mummies and the Iceman told Science Daily
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140715085055.htm). The team of scientists also detected
Clostridia-like bacteria in the bone sample that are thought to be in a dormant state. If they were to grow,
they could cause the 5,300-year-old mummy’s tissues to degrade. Continued preservation of the Iceman
will require additional micro-biological monitoring.

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