BOLZANO, ITALY, June 23 (DC Times Online) — Researchers at Eurac Research say they identified four cold-adapted yeast species on Ötzi the Iceman, the 5,300-year-old mummy kept in a cold cell at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, in a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Microbiome.
The team reported traces of the yeasts in skin samples, meltwater inside the mummy and stomach contents. It also said it reconstructed the microbes’ genetics and grew multiple species in the laboratory.
According to the study, three of the viable isolates could use phenol, a compound used to prevent fungal growth, as a food source. The researchers described Ötzi’s remains as a “dynamic biological interface,” where ancient glacier-derived microbes and modern contaminants can coexist under museum conditions.
The authors also said they found degraded and modern DNA fragments. They said that pattern may fit a long-running theory that some microbes survived during the mummy’s preservation at subzero temperatures, but they also said some organisms may have been introduced after the body was discovered in 1991 or during later preservation.
Ötzi’s remains date to around 3300 BC, making him Europe’s oldest known natural human mummy. The South Tyrol museum says he was found in the Alps near the Austria-Italy border and that later analyses suggest he was killed by an arrow wound and other injuries.
