title: Ancient bacteria of the Ötzi's microbiome: a genomic tale from the Copper Age.
abstract: Ancient microbiota information represents an important resource to evaluate bacterial evolution and to explore the biological spread of infectious diseases in history. The soft tissue of frozen mummified humans, such as the Tyrolean Iceman, has been shown to contain bacterial DNA that is suitable for population profiling of the prehistoric bacteria that colonized such ancient human hosts.
  
  
  
  Here, we performed a microbial cataloging of the distal gut microbiota of the Tyrolean Iceman, which highlights a predominant abundance of Clostridium and Pseudomonas species. Furthermore, in silico analyses allowed the reconstruction of the genome sequences of five ancient bacterial genomes, including apparent pathogenic ancestor strains of Clostridium perfringens and Pseudomonas veronii species present in the gut of the Tyrolean Iceman.
  
  
  
  Genomic analyses of the reconstructed C. perfringens chromosome clearly support the occurrence of a pathogenic profile consisting of virulence genes already existing in the ancient strain, thereby reinforcing the notion of a very early speciation of this taxon towards a pathogenic phenotype. In contrast, the evolutionary development of P. veronii appears to be characterized by the acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes in more recent times as well as an evolution towards an ecological niche outside of the (human) gastrointestinal tract.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11a, 43124, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele Andrea
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Lugli
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11a, 43124, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Milani
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11a, 43124, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mancabelli
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11a, 43124, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Turroni
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11a, 43124, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferrario
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11a, 43124, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Duranti
authors.affiliation: APC Microbiome Institute and School of Microbiology, National University of Ireland, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: Douwe
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van Sinderen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11a, 43124, Parma, Italy. marco.ventura@unipr.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ventura
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D003016:Clostridium perfringens / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D056186:Metagenomics / Q000379:methods*; D009106:Mummies / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial
keywords: Genomic evolution; Genomics; Gut bacteria; Metagenomics